The most fun tax & pensions special ever - This is Money Show
After a seven-year investigation into Google’s UK tax affairs, the company agreed to pay £130m to us.
Chancellor George Osborne hailed it a huge success.
No one else agreed.
Especially not the Shadow Chancellor, anyone with a calculator, or even the French, who a few days later announced they were negotiating a much bigger windfall on a far smaller business than Google UK.
It amounted to a tax rate of about 3% on its multi-billion-pound earnings in this country.
And all this at the time average Jo and Joe Bloggs are filing their tax returns before the end of January deadline.
People pay tax at 30% to 40 to nearly 50% on earnings of a few tens of thousands of pounds. You can see why these people are angry.
Luckily, there’s no anger in the Share Radio studio as presenter Georgie Frost, This is Money Editor Simon Lambert and Consumer Affairs Editor tackle the big tax and pensions scandals of the week with a sharp insight and warm wit.
It’s been a bad week for Osborne. Having announced a ban on raising taxes, the smart money’s on him stealing it from our pensions.
Also on the agenda,
Have you any idea how much VAT rich people pay when they buy a Rolls Royce car that costs more than a house?
And what’s it’s like to drive and park one?
Can it really be as tatty as it sounds or is it a must-have motor for the discerning Google executive?
Buy-to-let is back in the news, so is gold, which provides another excuse to play Spandau Ballet songs, and finally it’s been a bumper year for British cinema.
What’s your favourite film?