A SCOTTISH Conservative Party donor has effectively given up his seat in the House of Lords after a row over failure to pay UK taxes on his multimillion pound fortune.
Irvine Laidlaw, who has lent the Tories £3.5 million, was made a peer in 2004, promising to end his tax exile in Monaco.
But three years on, Lord Laidlaw remains resident in Monaco and outside the UK tax system.
The Electoral Commission records released yesterday showed Lord Laidlaw donated £8,000 to the Tories in the first quarter of this year.
Shortly after that disclosure it was announced that he had taken "leave of absence" from the Lords.
"He felt this would take the pressure off the Conservative Party," said a spokesman for the peer.
Sounds like all Sean Connery's empty promises.
For your information, Sean Connery pays tax to the UK goverment and has done for a long time.
That won't stop Labour numpties parroting the same nonsense over and over again till they are daft enough to swallow their own Union Jack parrot food.
I don't blame people like Messrs. Laidlaw and Connery from becoming tax exiles (even if they do pay some tax).
If the UK had a better tax scheme which encouraged people to stay we would likely have a more vibrant and creative society.
As you see from my location I now live in Germany, although I have property in the UK. I will never return to pay tax in the UK as I funnel my UK income via off-shore holdings.
Why do I do this, simple I worked hard to get my money and see no reason to allow the tax man to steal it from me to squander on a society that no longer knows the value of hard work and personal pride. The UK are the butt of jokes in Europe on how our society operates. We are clueless.
iRoy you show you're an idiot by posting this repeatedly. Scotland wants to expand and have a stronger voice in the world, so why do you demand that Sir Sean, or anyone else, come back home . I guarantee that he does more for Scotland in the Bahamas than you do here.
We should be getting all our Scottish ex-pats to promote Scotland abroad, but unfortunately we have people like you in Scotland.
#4 IanW Again, how many times does it have to be said. Sir Sean IS NOT A TAX EXILE.
BTW, is you scheme tax avoidance or tax evasion??
Labour numpties have nothing left but to parrot the same old same all - funny how they were happy to accept the endorsement of 'The Union' from grumpy old Alex Ferguson who has not lived in Scotland for twenty years or is that 'different'?
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I'm no really here #5 - As you will see I did try to qualify my statement as to Tax Exiles but it was still misinterpreted. Sean Connery does indeed pay some tax in the UK but by no means all that he would be liable for if he were to be permanently resident here.
He like others became disgruntled with the UK tax situation and simply left, in his case he initially would have done so to further his career anyway. A move to an area such as the Bahamas is possibly also in part to do with the tax situation.
Bluntly no-one really likes to pay tax so if we can get away without paying any (legally) most of us would do so.
I myself take advantage of Tax Avoidance, i.e. the legal utilization of the tax regime to one's own advantage, in order to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law .
Spot on Ian. We all have to pay taxes, the objection is waste and turning the next generation into subsidy junkies.
