Lorraine taxes her viewers’ patience
DOES anyone really believe that ITV daytime presenter Lorraine Kelly should not pay the normal tax rate on her income (Mail)? Like many other TV personnel, she has set up an arrangement to legally avoid the payment of what I consider to be the rightful amount of tax. She should be ashamed of herself. HMRC’s useless lawyers never seem able to successfully prosecute any of these cases. Surely it is time for the Government to tighten up the law to avoid dozy interpretations by the judiciary every time a case like this comes to court. The viewing public should stop putting these shameless people on a pedestal and boycott their shows. When the viewing figures fall off a cliff, the TV companies, which are equally responsible, will soon make changes.
MIKE WRIGHT, Reading, Berks. THE surprise is not that Lorraine Kelly has not paid £900,000 in tax and £300,000 in National Insurance contributions, but that she earns enough to result in such a huge bill.
Name and address supplied. LORRAINE KELLY may have won her battle with HMRC over her taxes, but she has lost the respect of vast numbers of the public in doing so. To admit that her programmes are all an act insults her viewers and the people she interviewed. She has proved herself to be yet another celebrity who has more than enough money but is not prepared to part with a penny if she can help it.
MARGARETE KELLY, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. WHAT a pity we can’t all have a tax lawyer like Lorraine Kelly and pretend we’re not who we are to get away with paying less tax and National Insurance. In arguing that she is a selfemployed star who performs as a chatty TV persona, she has won her case. But has admitted that the person we see on screen is not a real person but an annoying cutout.
ANNE HAYNES, High Kelling, Norfolk. THE BBC claims it is cashstrapped and so may be unable to continue offering free TV licences for pensioners — yet it can find millions to compensate staff who have messed up their tax affairs. It is time the BBC was told it should operate as a commercial channel. After all, it behaves like one, with all the plugs for other BBC programmes on shows such as The One Show.
JOHN WASSELL, Birmingham.