Who is to blame for World poverty.... yachties according to the Guardian!

[Frogmogman]

Speaking of dubious yacht tax financing tax dodges, look no further than the French Government, which only last November closed its longstanding "VAT Remission Scheme". This reduced VAT to 10% if a portion of the purchase price was funded by a French bank. How many on here used that scheme? Many I happen to know, and why not, it was all perfectly above board if slightly scuzzy.

The French Government has a long track record of offering various défiscalisation schemes to encourage private individuals to invest in thing that the administration wishes to see happen. This might, for example, be building housing in areas where private investors might otherwise not get involved, or student housing, or promoting investment in the overseas territories. In the case of the VAT scheme on yachts, it was conceived to help the yacht building industry by offering a tax break to buyers. The EU decided that the justification for the scheme didn't hold water, so pulled the plug on it.

Some schemes have been more successful than others, but as public-private investment schemes, IMHO they compare favourably with the sort of Enron-accounting, white elephant nonsense that Blair and co introduced in the UK with PPI contracts and schools. It gets the investment in, and it is taxpayers who benefit rather than faceless corporations run by people who are mates of the politicians.