I'm quite tired of the populist rhetoric of "morality" vis-à-vis tax that the UK media and politicos seemingly wheel out every other day. The bottom line is tha

I'm quite tired of the populist rhetoric of "morality" vis-à-vis tax that the UK media and politicos seemingly wheel out every other day. The bottom line is that taxation is a legal issue, not a moral issue. Lord Clyde said in Ayrshire Pullman Motor Services v Inland Revenue "No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel in his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow, and quite rightly, to take every advantage which is open to it under the Taxing Statutes for the purposes of depleting the taxpayer's pocket. And the taxpayer is in like manner entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue". That is the law of the land to this day. There is a moral obligation to obey the law, but not to pay a penny more in tax than the law demands. If there is a problem with the law then legislate to ameliorate the issue, but please spare me this talk of "morality".