TAXTOPIA: How I Discovered the Injustices, Scams and Guilty Secrets of the Tax Evasion Game

Reviews

karenk is reading

The book helps explain why so many rich foreigners have purchased expensive properties in the UK (pushing up house prices), how to get tax breaks on films (including the Bond movies) and why the tax laws need simplifying. Would you establish a company to buy a house for you to live in, to buy the car you drive?

There is plenty of humour (often at the expense of the author) to stop this being a dry and/or boring read. I studied tax law many years ago for my Business Law degree and my eldest is considering accountancy for a career so this seemed a good book to dive into.

This is a fascinating read and a reminder about why you should never believe the newspaper headlines about tax without investigating further. This isn’t a tax handbook but a look at how accountants help people navigate the tax laws to reduce their tax burden. How many companies are using loopholes to avoid paying corporation tax?

Happy to recommend. A thought provoking read, especially when you work for a social mobility education charity supporting young people who are finding schools struggling to recruit teachers due to lack of funding when billions of pounds aren’t being collected in tax. I think the majority of people would honestly look to save money in some way but it is amazing at the lengths people have gone to. Some of the stories you may remember (Gary Barlow, Chris Moyles etc) but this gives greater insight into why they believed the schemes were legal.