ABSTRACT
This chapter draws attention to the unsatisfactory position which exists regarding what can be termed ‘legal avoidance.’ In framing a taxing act the Revenue aim at bringing certain specified income into the tax net, and, no matter how much hardship is caused, if the income of any person is caught within the mesh he must pay up-income tax and equity being strangers. The majority of taxpayers, however, were prepared to pay their dues, after the usual grumbles ; but there were others who, with the heavier rate* of tax, tried to take their affairs outside the scope of the taxing Acts by means of schemes—elaborate or otherwise. At the beginning of the war, however, the whole question probably reached its climax, and one school of thought considered that no further attempts at tax avoidance should be made during the omergency whilst the other still looked upon the Revenue as fair game.
