General Chat

I am raging at the arch bishop of Canterbury
moaning about companies not paying enough tax, (I agree with that)
but he's the leader of a company that's the biggest land owner in Britain

and pays zero tax as they call them selves a charity!!!!

Try being a small business then mister :-| :-| :-| :-| :-|. We are stitched to the wall one way or another

Hullo la gooner


how is the knee?

Bob

Aah - but they're 'different' - like friends of MP's, councils, offshore investors etc........

We 'normal' people are mere 'plebs' that don't understand the intricacies of ripping people off......


.........or so they like to believe.... :-|

silly and grossly uninformed engage brain and do some research first
:-P

Rollo, not a kind post, bet you were never top of the form in diplomacy. Whatever you may think, it would be more 'friendly' if you could post your thoughts in a less aggressive way. And if you explain a bit why you think like that we might understand where you are coming from (i.e. the art of debate).

LaGooner as a Company Director
I know exactly where you are coming from :-( :-(

This is 'quite interesting'

http://www.vaguelyinteresting.co.uk/?p=2656#more-2656

Your information is, unfortunately, inaccurate Joy.

It's a popular misconception that the C. of E. (not a company by the way), is rolling in money. Although it is rich in assets, the church has to maintain 16,000 church buildings.

It's main source of income is from donation and historic endowments. The finances are dealt with by The Church Commissioners who deal with clergy pensions, cathedral expenses and bishops houses.

Actually, the Archbishop has a business head on him and is a very nice man too ;-)

I run a small business too ... it is far easier in the UK than the other side of the Channel. France, Denmark are a nightmare for employers whuile anybody complaining about red tape should try Germany or for no-sense-of-time-at-all Italy. Payroll taxes are also markedly lower in the UK than the western half of the EU. Govt corruption in the UK towards small business is low but otoh Customs & Excuse have pretty well nil understanding of SMEs and regard all of them as a fit up to hide money from the taxman. It is this very negative attitude that drives people nuts rather than red tape and tax per se.

The Church of England is not a business. A good chunk of its landholdings are, oddly enough, churches, chapels and cathedrals sometimes with attached graveyards such as Old Church St Pancras which has some of my rellies taking a rest and a very nice park. Should the COfE sell of the park to Chinese property developers or start charging admission ? Some of the land that the COfE owns is is high rental commercial property mainly in London but scattered through the country. It produces most of the rental income. Much of the land my area though is farmland. The CofE is a fair landlord but not very forgiving of late quarterly rentals from farmers or late rent payments for housing. For that reason it has from time to time taken a lot of flak. The late Edward Heath was a COfE tenant in Salisbury.

Where does the money go? Well somebody has to pay for the upkeep of church property, utility bills, pay for vicars and bishops and so on and son forth. Last but by no means least the COfE funds a lot of charitable work.

I cannot see any reason for having a rant against the COfE property holdings unless of course one's hat is set against any religious organisation as a charity in which case all the others would be dragged into the net.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOACWbdUJ6Y