Dennis Healy, when he was the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer,
once said that "the difference between tax avoidance and tax
evasion is the thickness of a prison wall." What he meant was
that there is a fine line between illegal tax evasion, and legal
tax avoidance. Put another way, if someone gets married and the
unplanned consequence is that tax is saved that is lucky. If that
person gets married and the main reason is to save tax, it is tax
avoidance. If that person tells the tax authorities that they are
married when they are not in order to save tax it is tax
evasion.
Governments all around the world, need to find more money and
are under great pressure to collect more tax. Tax departments are
becoming more sophisticated and better at catching tax cheats. Many
are mounting concerted campaigns to convince the public that tax
avoidance is illegal and immoral. It is not the former but is
arguably the latter. The public relations war is being lost by
wealthy tax
