My choice of biscuits may not have wider significance. But individual consumer choices can have a major impact on tax revenues. For example, many people in the UK are happy to buy their DVDs, CDs and computer games from retailers like Amazon and Play, who supply the product via the Channel Islands in order to avoid paying VAT. That business would disappear if individuals choice not to engage in tax avoidance.
I think you’re being a bit precious with your definitions of tax avoidance and tax mitigation; until recently they have been synonyms, and if anything the modern difference in usage is through tax advisers preferring the term “tax mitigation” because it hasn’t — yet — had the bad press of “tax avoidance”.
Tax avoidance is not always against the spirit of the law! People use trusts to avoid inheritance tax; universities and schools become charities; international companies move assets between jurisdictions and change their incorporated structures; I choose not to buy chocolate biscuits. They are all sensible, legal, and justifiable measures to take to reduce one’s tax burden.
no subject
I think you’re being a bit precious with your definitions of tax avoidance and tax mitigation; until recently they have been synonyms, and if anything the modern difference in usage is through tax advisers preferring the term “tax mitigation” because it hasn’t — yet — had the bad press of “tax avoidance”.
Tax avoidance is not always against the spirit of the law! People use trusts to avoid inheritance tax; universities and schools become charities; international companies move assets between jurisdictions and change their incorporated structures; I choose not to buy chocolate biscuits. They are all sensible, legal, and justifiable measures to take to reduce one’s tax burden.