Taxes are loved by socialists and corrupt politicians.

Seems that Mrs Margaret Thatcher, whose funeral is day after tomorrow, has managed to avoid inheritance tax on her property. Daily Mirror, 13 April. The lease on the property at Chester Square, Belgravia in London is held by one Bakeland Company, based in the British Virgin Islands, and since a company does not die there is no liability for tax, although it is hard to understand why a lease, which is like a long-term rental, should attract inheritance tax at all. British law. The official address for Bakeland is a PO box in a small town in Liechtenstein and its origins were in St. Helier in Jersey, all well known tax havens. Bakeland took out the first lease in October 1991 for 700,000 pounds, which was to last till 25 December, 2030, and took out a second lease in March 2006 for 2,395,807 pounds, which is to last till 29 July, 2055. Curiously, the second lease states," The airspace above the building is excluded from the title." The present value of the property is 6 million pounds so, at 40%, the inheritance tax works out to 2.4 million pounds, a tidy sum in today's era of austerity. However, no criticism is due because conservatives believe in low taxes, especially for the wealthy. The reason why the British government is unable to collect taxes is because Britain has the largest number of tax havens in the world at Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Turks and Caicos Islands. It is funny that the US, the world's biggest thug, has gone after banks in Switzerland and Luxembourg and has persecuted Non Resident Indians, living in the US, for having a few measly dollars in banks in India but says nothing to Britain, the largest money laundering country in the world. Perhaps this is what is meant by the " special relationship " that Britain likes to boast of. States in the US such as Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Nevada, Texas, South Dakota, United States Virgin Islands, Wyoming and Washington have incorporation laws similar to tax havens. Which probably explains how large companies and the rich are able to escape paying taxes in the US. The world's largest company, GE pays virtually no corporate tax and Mitt Romney declared paying tax at around 14%. Naturally, tax havens are seen as centers of money laundering by socialist countries like France and India which tax the hell out of their people. After Mr Francois Hollande, President of France promised to " eradicate tax havens in Europe and the world " one guest on BBC Global said that tax havens perform a very useful function of controlling corrupt politicians who will waste our hard earned money. If taxes are too high people will escape to tax havens, thus keeping a lid on high taxes. His message was that taxes should be low and tax laws simple with few or no loopholes. We are told that Indians have $2 trillion hidden in tax havens. Should we cheer such fellows?