Tax breaks for all in Spain

The McBroon Clan of Scottish ministers and sporran-hanging MPs, having ruined the British economy, have now been exposed as tax dodgers with many of them getting taxpayers to pick up the bills from the accountants they hired “to make sure we were paying the correct of amount of tax”.

For “correct” read “minimum”. And the worst offender appears to be Alistair Darling, the man in charge of tax matters and who recently declared war on tax havens and all those business people using them.

Since he and his predecessor as chancellor, the head of the McBroons himself, came to power they have increased the tax burden on the British citizenry to the highest levels for decades. So why should the rest of us part with a penny of the ever-increasing taxation being demanded by a man who doesn't pay his own fair share?

McDarling's tax avoidance was revealed by the Daily Telegraph because his expenses claims showed that he'd 'flipped' his designated second home - the one on which he could claim running costs from the taxpayer - four times in four years.

In 2004, when he was Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Darling claimed that his main residence was a small flat in Lambeth, owned by Lewis Moonie, a fellow Labour MP. Mr Moonie - another part of the spider’s web of Scottish McBroon MPs - had bought the flat from Gordon Brown.

But for McDarling, designating this flat as his main residence - despite the fact that his wife and children lived in Scotland - allowed him to bill taxpayers for the upkeep of his much larger Edinburgh house, bought for £570,000 in 1998…

It would take an accountant to unravel such a web of deceit and maximise the tax avoidance, so it’s no surprise he hired one and put his fees on the taxpayer’s tab. The saga is detailed in the Daily Mail and is worth reading.

Also worth reading for taxpayers planning to invest some of their cash the McBroons have not yet grabbed, is an article on how to buy a bargain property in Spain – including Spanish bank repossessions – and avoid all the McBroon property taxes. No capital gains tax – benefit enjoyed by McBroon and other MPs – and no inheritance tax, no currency exchange problems etc.

The scheme is called Libertad – Spanish for Freedom – and more Brits are planning to follow the example of the McBroons and minimise the amount of tax they hand over.

Calmer waters for the Spanish property market

When the man in charge of storm-tossed Great Britain's financial lifeboat admits he didn't see the financial tsunami heading in and is pictured in the media with his personnal buoyancy aid undone and his engine kill cord unattached, what hope of rescue for the UK property market?

That Capt Darling appears to have not a clue on how to turn the boat around and chart a course to calmer waters, suggests it might soon be case of "women and children first" as the ship of state hits flotation difficulties.

To many people, the overseas property scene and Britain's property scene are both one and the same - once good news stories that have now turned bad since the credit crunch hit, leading to nothing but trouble, losses and broken dreams.

However, property owners are in trouble only if they must sell and if the mortgage payments become unaffordable. Otherwise the current dip in values can be retrieved in future years because property prices always go back up and beyond their peak.

So now might be a good time to buy a property in Spain for those with spare cash as they will get more property for their investment and benefit when growing confidence begins to move prices upward again. A discount of 20-30 percent is a great equity gain and coupled with a much lower mortgage and lower still repayments is giving some out there good reasons to buy.

Nicholas Marr of property website www.homesgofast.com says investors who have enough money to avoid the credit crunch can pick up bargains in Spain. He explained: "Those buyers who are in the fortunate position not to require high loan to value finance are now reaping the rewards; they have the power.

"Buyers are still there and that they are picking and choosing the best products. The truth about the market is more subtle than just boom or bust, he added.

For those looking to invest, it seems the key is not to put things on hold until the storms die away and the sun shines again, but to seek the best deals that are now clearly out there...leaving Capt Darling to chart a rescue course for the UK property market...