France’s socialist president François Hollande visited David Cameron at Downing Street today, but the afternoon press conference turned into a bit of an embarrassment for Dave as his opposite number threw up a few surprises from the right of the PM. Not only did Hollande promise he wouldn’t tax second homes owned by Britons south of the Channel, but he taunted George Osborne’s top rate of income tax as too left-wing:

Ooh la la! Hollande: 'The top rate of tax in Britain is 45%. In France it's 41%'—
James Chapman (Mail) (@jameschappers) July 10, 2012

He’ll be calling for an EU referendum next…

Guido hears that Rupert Murdoch’s decision to separate News Corporation’s money-making arm from its publishing arm left senior employees completely in the dark as to what lies in store for the future of the company. Chatting to News Corp employees last night, Guido was told chaos is reaching such a stage that hacks are only half joking when they say they have had to establish shadow newsrooms where the ultimate scoop is finding out whether or not they will be keeping their jobs. Talk about rogue reporters…

Guido also put it to them that News Group, the UK newspaper wing of the business, doesn’t pay any tax. The denial was pretty damning:

“Look, The Sun is the only paper that makes a profit, The Times loses money every day of the week. It’s pretty hard to pay any tax when you’re haemorrhaging money like that. The print media is on the way out, for sure.”

Did someone say dead tree press?

Yesterday it was the Tories advising their top donors on how to avoid tax through a controversial “legacy” scheme. The story had considerable traction and unsurprisingly provoked considerable outrage among Labour MPs:

How many estates have reduced Inheritance Tax by leaving money to Conservative Party Foundation? Does PM regard it as tax avoidance scheme?—
Steve McCabe (@steve_mccabe) July 02, 2012

Guido can now reveal that the Labour Party offers an almost identical scheme to help its supporters dodge inheritance tax as well. Labour’s “Leave a Legacy” programme offers advice on three different methods of leaving money to the party, even going as far as to suggest clever a legalistic wording of donors’ wills in order to minimise tax liability:

Labour have led the way on bashing tax dodgers, with everyone from the shadow cabinet to the backbenches queuing up to stick the boot in. Starting with trigger-happy tweeter Steve McCabe, Guido wonders what they have to say about their own party being directly involved in a tax avoidance scheme. They call that red-handed…

Dave might think that Jimmy Carr is morally repugnant but that has not stopped the Tories from advising their wealthy donors on how to avoid tax. The Conservative Foundation, an organisation run by an array of Tory grandees and city types, is offering donors the chance to dodge inheritance tax through a scheme in which they leave a “legacy” to the Tory party. The scheme promises to “reduce or even remove completely” the inheritance tax liability of rich Conservative backers, while its website explains how to take advantage of rules allowing tax-free donations to political parties. Although the scheme appears to have been set up on the quiet it is startlingly open about its intentions:

Cameron was always going to be a hostage to fortune over tax avoidance, now he faces the inevitable dilemma of having to deal with questions about his party’s wealthy financiers. He’s hardly making it easy for himself.

Justine Greening to the Sunday Telegraph:

“The taxes that we get in fund the public services that we all rely on. Surely it’s better to challenge the petrol retailers to pass on reductions to motorists and actually I think that’s probably the most important thing to do.”

Treasury Twitter feed on Tuesday:

“Chancellor announces that August fuel duty rise delayed until January 2013 to help with cost of living.”

Sure that went down well in the Department of Transport. Given that Balls was on the radio calling for the u-turn this morning, Guido reckons he was tipped that it was coming…

I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgement.—
Jimmy Carr (@jimmycarr) June 21, 2012

Although I’ve been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs),—
Jimmy Carr (@jimmycarr) June 21, 2012

I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly.

Apologies to everyone.

Jimmy Carr—
Jimmy Carr (@jimmycarr) June 21, 2012

Guido suspects that HMRC are going to litigate over this scheme, probably successfully. Carr may end up paying all the taxman demands plus penalties…

Jimmy Carr is immoral apparently. It’s open season…

You’ll want to let those cool…

Via @michaelsavage of the Times.

Tomorrow is Tax Freedom Day – the first day of the calendar year that you stop working for the state and start working for yourself.  One of the better received parts of the budget was the pledge of tax transparency – soon tax statements will come with a break down of how our money is spent.

If you can’t wait until then to see how your money is squandered, the Treasury have made a nifty app.

You can now keep a handy reminder in your pocket of how much of your hard earned cash is given to people who won’t work…

Guido really likes this video from the wonks at the Centre for Policy Studies, it animates a very clear message, around the world lower taxes lead to higher growth rates.

The data is pretty clearly presented, are you watching Mr Osborne?