Nothing certain about taxes except that some will always avoid them

TAX avoidance and evasion are two knacks of creative accountancy which most people — at least those of us unfortunately unencumbered by a few spare hundred thousand — believed would not rear their embarrassed heads again for a long time.

Tax avoidance is legal, although the lads in the Revenue Commissioners are never too impressed with it. Tax evasion is definitely illegal, and in between the two are some lovely grey areas for those who need them. An example of the first has surfaced from the deep recesses of the tax laws and is a classic of the sort that definitely does not impress the Revenue.

In this case, it involves that paragon of probity, the AIB, and third level institutions which, as we all know, believe that you can always profit from education.