http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/osborne-pay-your-taxes#petitionGeorge Osborne likes to say "we're all in this together." But last week, Channel 4 revealed that he's avoiding paying tax. He pays accountants to help him find loopholes which Channel 4 reckon will help him dodge £1.6million. These kind of "legal tax dodges" cost the rest of us billions.
How can we trust George Osborne to do all he can to close tax loopholes when he uses the loopholes himself?
The government doesn't want to tackle tax dodging, but together we can embarrass them into action. Let's build a huge petition against George Osborne's tax dodges. We can prove the that as long as he's not paying his fair share of tax, the public won't buy his claims that "we're all in this together".
Our campaign to challenge the Chancellor George Osborne about tax dodging is growing fast. Together, we're making sure there is a real debate about why rich individuals and companies get away with avoiding billions worth of tax. This weekend The Observer ran a big piece on our petition. We made tax dodging a headline issue, and the most discussed article in the Guardian website. [1]
The more of us who get involved, the more chance we have to change the debate. We need to make sure our petition keeps on growing. That will prove to the media and the government that this issue isn't going to go away.
Please can you help the petition to grow even more by spreading the word?
Can you forward this email to your friends and family and ask them to sign? They can sign the petition here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/osborne-pay-your-taxesIf you use Facebook, you can share the petition here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/osborne-tax-facebook-shareOr if you use Twitter, you can tweet it here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/osborne-tax-twitter-shareWhen we launched this campaign, the media was silent about tax cheats but full of stories about benefit cheats. Together, we're forcing tax dodging into the headlines. This weekend a comment piece in the Observer said we were wrong to challenge Osborne for using "legal" loopholes to avoid paying £1.6m in tax. The writer, David Mitchell, said that "only saints and incompetents don't" avoid paying tax. [1]
38 Degrees members were quick to respond on our Facebook page, pointing out "George Osborne represents the government's financial policies - including tax - that's why he is being targeted by 38 Degrees" [2] We know that if the UK Chancellor is using accountants to find tax loopholes, it should be so that he can get the loopholes closed. How can we trust the Chancellor to take real action on tax avoidance when he's avoiding millions himself?
Politicians aren't going to take tax dodging seriously unless we make them. People-powered campaigning is the best way to force this issue up the agenda. So far nearly 15,000 of us have signed the petition. Please help the petition to grow even more by forwarding this email to your friends and family and asking them to sign. They can sign the petition here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/osborne-pay-your-taxesPlease help spread the word in every way you can.
Thanks for being involved,
Johnny, David, Hannah and the 38 Degrees team
