Blame MPs for tax avoidance

THE idea, currently promoted, of “naming and shaming” those who avoid tax is clearly absurd. Tax avoidance (not to be confused with tax evasion) is perfectly legal and every self-respecting accountant has a duty to his clients to ensure they pay the minimum amount of tax possible, within the framework of the law.

Those who should be in the dock for “tax avoidance”, and thoroughly ashamed to be there, are those who failed to close all the known tax ­loopholes – namely, Messrs Brown, Darling, Osborne and their predecessors, all of whom avoided radical tax change and fiddled with tax regulation, ­allowing perfectly legal tax-­fiddling to continue unchecked.

Joseph G Miller, Dunfermline