Actor Michael Caine claims to be “a socialist” in spite of having been involved in a tax avoidance scheme and previously leaving Britain to avoid the top rate of tax in the 1970s
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is a man who flip-flops like no other and whose political views are best described as “chaotic”. Though a man known for fleeing Britain for America to avoid high taxes in the 1970s and a man named as an investor in a tax avoidance scheme named Liberty in 2014, the pro-Brexit actor has this week called himself a “socialist” and went as far to say: “I wouldn’t live in a country that didn’t pay income tax”.
In an interview with the Catholic newspaper The Universe, Sir Michael remarked:
“I’m a socialist, basically. I want as much money as possible for poor people, to help whoever’s in trouble. I wouldn’t live in a country that didn’t pay income tax”.
“What you have to do is keep emotion out of it. You can’t say: ‘We hate these rich people, we’re going to tax them to smithereens’. You’ve got to have them stay in your country and pay the tax”.
A public supporter of Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron and even Tony Blair, Sir Michael was forced to pay a significant sum to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs after being exposed as part of the Liberty scheme and also made a fool of himself in another regard. The actor also told The Universe:
“In order to do something good, I don’t just do work which is no good. I don’t do commercials’.
In 2013, he was paid a six-figure sum to film a commercial for Sky television. How conveniently the man forgets.