Richer Sounds: Richer Sounds boss launches crusade to expose tax avoiders

Julian Richer bankrolls new watchdog and backs 'naming and shaming'A wealthy former Tory party donor is to fund a new independent tax watchdog that will pore over the opaque finances of multinational companies and individuals to expose tax avoidance. Julian Richer, who founded the hi-fi and TV specialist Richer Sounds, is bankrolling the non-profit venture Taxwatch after growing angry at the UK's increasingly "broken" tax system."I'm outraged by the status quo," said Richer. "We pay our taxes but these people are just laughing at us. You can't move these days for stories about people and companies trying to find ever more ingenious ways to avoid paying their tax bill, whether it's tech giants, celebrities or major landowners." Richer, who has an estimated £160m fortune, is an unlikely crusader for tax fairness. In his new book, The Ethical Capitalist: How to Make Business Work Better for Society, he admits to having briefly used a legal loophole that enabled him to avoid national insurance by "paying myself in bullion" before seeing the error of his ways.Continue reading...