Donation to Taxdodger's Alliance brings Charity Commission warning

A charity that gave more than £500,000 to the Taxpayers' Alliance (TPA) has been warned by the Charity Commission that its reputation risks being damaged "if its relationship with the alliance is not properly managed", reports guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/20/taxpayers-alliance-tories-charitable-donations

The Politics and Economics Research Trust was investigated following a referral by John Prescott after a Guardian report which revealed how the TPA got £500,000 from the charity up to 1 December 2009 - 93% of all its grants.

The TPA website challenges the report saying, "The Charity Commission did not find any evidence of wrong-doing by the trustees of PERT, the investigation has concluded and they are not under any obligation to report to the Charity Commission or provide any further information in relation to this matter".

It is not the first time that the Taxpayer’s Alliance, known as the ‘Taxdodger’s Alliance’ in our circles, has faced controversy. In 2009 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/09/taxpayers-alliance-director-tax  reported that, a director of the alliance, Alexander Heath, does not pay British tax and lives in France.

Widely seen as a Tory front, the TAP’s finances have been under scrutiny for a while, especially by The other TaxPayers’ Alliance http://taxpayersalliance.org/  .

Last September, the TAP hosted the ‘European Resource Bank’ conference. For defenders of the poor taxpayer, they announced a somewhat insensitive reception at a time when people were facing huge cuts and job losses. “We kick off the conference on Wednesday evening with a champagne reception at a fantastic penthouse apartment overlooking central London”.

The local guide section had the cheek to inform… “Many museums in the UK are free to visit – these are marked where applicable”.

“No mention of why these museums are free to visit then? Thought these bunch of radical libertarians would be eschewing such blatant government subsidies”, commented the Other TaxPayer’s Alliance. http://taxpayersalliance.org/news/they-want-lower-taxes-but-love-free-museums

The event was sponsored by the Cato Institute and Americans for Prosperity Foundation, amongst others. As the New Yorker detailed http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all  both organisations have been funded heavily by the billionaire Koch brothers who back a range of right wing organisations and funded campaigns against health reform in the US.

Reports today of a prank call, pretending to be from David Koch exposes Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s seedy attacks on public service workers. http://wseu-sepac.org/walkers_phonecall_2011022.htm

JS