Of Taxing Double-Standards and No Beer

The IMF boss, Frenchwoman Christine Lagarde, has made the headlines this week villifying Greek taxpayers for not paying enough tax, laying the blame for Greece's woes on people greedily wanting to keep their own hard earned cash. Ignoring the fact that, to name a single instance, Greek state rail employs more people than it has passengers, meaning it would be cheaper for the Greek taxpayer to buy all the passengers of Greek state rail a taxi chit, indicating complete bureaucratic mismanagement on a scale that could not be fixed other than by the economic collapse we are witnessing, what Christine forgot to fess up to was the double-standard that she pays no tax at all on her grandiose salary, paid for by the enslaved taxpayers of the world:

Christine Lagarde, the IMF boss who caused international outrage after she suggested in an interview with the Guardian on Friday that beleaguered Greeks might do well to pay their taxes, pays no taxes, it has emerged.

As an official of an international institution, her salary of $467,940 (£298,675) a year plus $83,760 additional allowance a year is not subject to any taxes.

[Snip]

Lagarde, 56, receives a pay and benefits package worth more than American president Barack Obama earns from the United States government, and he pays taxes on it.

The same applies to nearly all United Nations employees – article 34 of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961, which has been signed by 187 states, declares: "A diplomatic agent shall be exempt from all dues and taxes, personal or real, national, regional or municipal."

At the heart of the Western police states, what really makes me angry living behind the IRon Drape, is the immorality of the whole damned, fetid edifice. 


And closer to home, if you enjoyed a Good Bastards beer from The West Coast Brewery, well, I have to call on the final round. IRD solicitor Helen Sumner has decided because of unpaid taxes, penalties and interest, it's better in this world-wide recession - and freedom can go hang itself - to liquidate The West Coast Brewery and its workers, and create another burden for those of us still left to shoulder the voracious tax appetite of our politicians. Why isn't IRD culpable for the economic harm they cause? (Rhetorical question, of course).

The tax amount aside, the truly obscene aspect of this story is how this company's tax bill grew, upon penalties and interest that would have made Al Capone blush, from $87,500 to the current total of $234,000. As Paddy Sweeney, the brewery's founder, says:

"Between the global financial crisis and the earthquakes, it hasn't been an easy time. The original amount ... had trebled in the three years since [the debt was incurred] because of penalties and compound interest. ...[These penalties] are a blight for how the government treated businesses trying to put matters right."

I would say it's simply a 'blight for how the government treated businesses', period.

There was a major revolution for freedom fought 236 years ago over less than the abuses Western governments now exact on the tax-slaves forced to pay-up for their tyrannies. Shame on you for allowing this to happen, Peter Dunne. If you were honourable, you would step down.

At the very least, something has to be done about the IRD penalty and interest system. It's the final brass knuckle of state being put into a business when it's on hard times, and it's driving good men and women to drink, and to the brink.