Being a cheeky chappy always helps when you get into trouble with the tax man - just ask Ken Dodd, who has since made the unsuccesful attempt by the then Inland Revenue to prosecute him into a feature of his act ("Self assessment? I invented that!").

So it seems that Jimmy Carr has attracted rather more sympathy for his foray into structured tax avoidance than, for example Vodafone has for the way it dealt with its tax affairs.

An infographic compares the amount of tax 'legally' avoided by Carr with that 'illegally' evaded by Vodafone (the blogger's words, not mine).

In fact, the almost universal assertion that what Carr did was 'legal' is not as clear-cut as it sounds.

It is not fraudulent as the scheme has been declared to HMRC, but it is not at all certain that it definitely, legally, reduced Carr's tax bill.

The promoter of the scheme clearly thinks that it does, but there are a number of anti-avoidance provisions which might be in point, and HMRC have said they are investigating it.

Just like Carr, Vodafone used an overseas company to try and legally reduce its tax bill. Just like Carr, there was a question about whether the planning 'worked'.

HMRC said it didn't, and claimed £6 billion, Vodafone said it did, and resisted.

In the end, rather than continuing an already lengthy and expensive court action, both sides settled on £1.25 billion, an amount that an experienced tax judge, with access to all the necessary confidential papers, says was good value for money.

So why is Carr getting fond smiles from precisely the same people who excoriate Vodafone?

• Jimmy Carr
• Ken Dodd
• tax avoidance
• Vodafone

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