Morality and tax evasion

Sir, – Tory MSP Bill Bowman comments on the issue of written-off council tax debt

(The Courier November 15) and describes the situation as “alarming” and suggests vital services may be threatened.

I can assure Mr Bowman that Dundee City Council takes every step possible to collect outstanding taxes.

If only the Conservative Party – which Mr Bowman represents – could say the same thing.

With the Panama and Paradise Papers revealing the trillions of pounds the super-rich have squirreled away in morally questionable offshore havens, it begs the question, why does Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs only employ 522 staff to investigate tax evasion but the Department for Work and Pensions employs over 4,000 people to look at benefit fraud?

Thanks to the Tories’ relentless austerity programme and so-called welfare reforms, Dundee will see £94 million removed from its economy every year by 2021.

Real people; real lives. Mr Bowman refers to those who pay their council tax in full feeling “short changed”.

I can assure him that those taxpayers in the UK who have faced seven years of callous, ideologically driven austerity and seen the UK Government remove the safety net from those who need it most will look to the inaction of the Conservative Party on tax evasion and make their judgments accordingly.

Cllr Kevin Cordell The Ferry Ward c/o The City Chambers Dundee