I'm not at all surprised.

Petrol companies have been dubious for decades.

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Lets be careful out there !

Whatever the RIPOFF is! VAT is added to it. what with corporation tax, along with all the other taxes and duty deducted along the way from the MD all the way down to the small shareholder, the total must be gigantic, so will there be a payback? or the usual fudge?

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

I reckon bankers and the oil companies represent the same thing. We know from recent history that bankers are corrupt and devoid of any moral compass; we also know that we can judge a person by the friends and colleagues they associate with. The close links between corrupt banks and the oil & gas market must surely mean that the oil companies are every bit as corrupt as the bankers.

This Rothschild web site makes it clear that banking, money, and energy - in the form of oil and gas are all very closely linked:
http://www.rothschild.com/search/?searchtext=oil

What Rothschild say about themselves:
http://www.rothschild.com/about_rothschild/our_group/


Here Rothschild boast of "advising" on 69% of the value of the UK oil and gas market:
http://www.rothschild.com/Inside1Column ... 2147485984

Just like LIBOR if anything is proved there won't be any real punishment..

A several £million fine which will equate to a couple of hours worth of profit for these firms then business as usual.

No charges or jail time for anyone.

Oil price fixing was discussed on Sky News last evening. The the general assessment was; even if there are reasons to find anyone guilty, then it will be at least 10 years before anyone is brought to account. Which means, nobody will pay for their crimes because the guilty will be long gone by then. The worst that can be expected for anyone found guilty is a mild slap on the wrist for an inadvertent misdemeanour.

Yet another complete u-turn by ' We're all in this together-call me dave'. This one apparently took less than 24 hours.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... dmits.html

Just when are we the 'plebs' going to realise exactly what is going on and rise up against it ?

lets not forget the biggest thief is the government , with the unjust tax on it

Moley, the big fish, the bankers, the oil men, the corporates, such as Starbucks, Google, Amazon, Npower, etc. etc. are left to go free and lightly taxed. Meanwhile, the innocent little people are being relentlessly pursued by the State for money they don't owe.

The reports of the big fish getting away with their fraud, lies and theft is bad enough. But it really makes me angry when I experience unjustified persecution from the State for being fully legal and honest with the tax authorities.

About three weeks ago I received an Income Tax demand from HMRC for £394 of supposedly unpaid Income Tax for the year 2012-13. I then sent my calculations to HMRC clearly showing that HMRC had failed to take my pensioner Age Allowance into account, which is why their demand was wrong. HMRC responded by saying that they didn't know I qualified for the Age Allowance. There is no excuse for HMRC failing to include my Age Allowance, they have known all about me and my income from day one. They know my National Insurance number (without which they refuse to issue a tax code with a tax allowance) which identifies me and my age.

Today, I received a reply from HMRC claiming that the demand for unpaid Income Tax of £394 was in error. The same letter then goes onto say that I now owe HMRC £4.60. That is four pounds and sixty pence in unpaid Income Tax for 2012-13. The demand for £4.60 comes with the usual threats, if I don't pay then interest will be charged on the outstanding unpaid tax. The usual stuff of demanding money with menaces. How much does it cost HMRC to pursue a supposedly unpaid tax of £4.60? What would the be cost-benefit ratio to HMRC of ensuring the corporates pay their proper dues?

I have been retired now for nearly 9 years. My only income is from my pension providers and the State pension. I have no income from savings, investments, or from any other source. Every April I inform HMRC of my updated pension income for the new tax year. Every year HMRC issue a tax code based on the income I declare. I have also learned from HMRC that they know from my pension providers how much I receive in pensions; so there is no possible case of my fiddling my declaration of pension income. And yet EVERY year since I retired HMRC have chased me for 'unpaid' Income Tax, and have had to back down after I challenge them. And every year after my challenge HMRC claim that I owe them some small sum, usually in the range of £4 to £12 – which usually turns out that they owe me that small sum.

This afternoon I have sent copies of HMRC's letters and tax demands to my MP, to ask why his government is prepared to persecute the law-abiding pensioner while the big corporates are left to enjoy their unpaid taxes.

In the mean time Google, Amazon, Npower, Starbucks are enjoying their enormous sums of unpaid tax. Some of these corporates even go out to expensive dinner with a high-ranking rep from HMRC.

Future pensioners BEWARE of the State Persecutor!

The government collected duty and VAT calculated at the final pump price so may well be guilty of a conspiracy. No in fact I am sure they are. They must have known about this scam for years but did little about it.

Margaret Hodge the chair of the Parliamentary committee whose face you probably saw on the news today questioning the likes of google and Amazon was front and centre over the Parliamentary expenses scandal..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5324582/How-the-Telegraph-investigation-exposed-the-MPs-expenses-scandal-day-by-day.html

The fact this along with the tax avoidance is getting airtime now is to make the so called plebs think something is being done when the opposite is actually the case.

Yes the law may have been stretched to breaking point over LIBOR and the fuel scam but we already know no-one will face charges from it, so the biggest teeth they have is a large fine which the public will pay anyway when they hike prices to account for it.

As for the tax avoidance thing it must be remembered that these firms have done absolutely nothing wrong. They (and their accountants) work fully within the tax rules, and have the knowledge and expertise to take full advantage of that. Like it or not that is simply the way it is and if I was a shareholder in either of these firms (I am not) I would be expecting them to do this. I certainly don't blame them.

They simply work within the legislation as it is written by Parliament here and in Brussels. The google and Amazon avoidance is mainly EU driven in that they both headquarter in Ireland as as such have free access to the UK markets as part of the EU free cross border trade agreements. They choose to pay the bulk of their tax in Ireland.

Back to Margaret Hodge. She was rather condescending today in her comments in trying to point the finger at these people when it is in fact her and her ilk which are part of the problem. They create the regulatory environment that they operate in and it is beyond hypocritical to criticise them for taking full advantage of it.

Smoke and mirrors. It makes the plebs think something (when in all reality nothing) is being done. To really put a stop to it they would need to re-negotiate pretty much all the European treaty's and roll back the single market.

Never going to happen is it.