Jimmy's error.

So Allan Carr made a ‘terrible error of judgement’ trying to avoid paying tax. Actually when I looked him up on the net Allen Carr was the guru of giving up smoking and died of lung cancer in 2006 and thus not concerned with his tax position. Jimmy Carr on the other hand is. It doesn’t surprise me. Though comedic his snappy dresser sneering style has always struck me as ‘fuck you society.’ But I can’t blame him for his error. This is how it goes. You find through some freak of circumstance the holder of ever-larger paychecks. You spurn your local accountant, Ivor Calclator, for a larger firm, KPMFISSG who as part of their comprehensive tax planning service puts you in contact with pension consultants, investment brokers, sellers of forestry and planners of off-off shore arrangements in such places as Lilliput and Gormangast. These planners arrange for your money to not go to you; that would incur huge amounts of tax paying, but to a small office in Jersey that is the commercial address of a company in Liechtenstein who make absolutely nothing. They stress that this has to be ‘at arms length’ to avoid said tax and that you can trust them completely. You being a comedian, musician or other creative having not a clue about that which they are talking are engaged in their rapture as to the efficiency of the scheme and agree. Thus armed with a pension, which after yearly fees and commissions are taken off will reduce a six figure contribution into a four figure annuity, half a forested glen near Loch Alch and an unwritten agreement with a man in a lovely suit who you’re unlikely to see again. Yes Jimmy Carr probably did make a terrible error of judgment. He tried to avoid paying tax.