Jimmy Carr – hypocrite yes, pest yes, villain no

If you had asked me to put a face to the name Jimmy Carr two days ago I would have failed miserably. But now, at last I know, what that annoyingly smug man who is always on the telly is called. I have learned something new and completely not worth learning. I have also learned that Mr Carr tells jokes about bankers avoiding paying tax whilst at the same time uses clever accountants to avoid paying tax himself. I have also learned that Mr Gary Barlow (hitherto regarded as some sort of saint in celeb land) plays the same game.

As far as I know Mr Barlow has never offered his views on ones fiscal duties and so he is no hypocrite. For Mr Carr I think that the case on hypocrisy is pretty much a slam dunk. But so what? I find it amazing that someone as annoying and not that funny earns as much as he appears to do but given my belief in market forces who am I to argue?

But is either man a villain? No. Should Saint Gary now not get a gong for organising the Queen’s concert? No he should not get a gong because so many of the acts were either awful (Ms Cole) or fat has-beens (Elton & Stevie) and for allowing Sir Cliff to wear that ghastly shade of pink. But that is another matter.

The point is that UK tax rates are a) very high for top earners and b) that tax rules are mind-numbingly complex. If the rules were simplified and the marginal rates for the Gary’s and Jimmy’s were reduced neither of them would be pushing their earnings through complex offshore companies and structures. And better still, overall tax receipts would go up. As a gesture to play to the masses, both this Government and the last has waged a petty war on high earners which may have kept Fleet Street/the electorate happy but has done nothing to improve the nation’s finances. Indeed it has had the opposite effect.

Personally I would love to see a very selectively applied “loathsome celeb tax” which had the effect of driving Russell Brand, Graham Norton, Katie Price and a few others into permanent exile. But that is nothing to do with punishing them for being rich, it is just a way of improving British TV and the quality of life for the rest of us.

If Fleet Street/Call Me Dave etc wish to stop Carr type schemes it’s simple: cut tax and simplify the system. The benefits will flow through very quickly indeed.