Beware the tax police if....

[woolybanana]

.... you live in UK. The new inspectors may be sitting in the pub near you.

Seriously, what a state things have come to when decent middle class chaps have to be spied upon by newly trained, crypto-fascist semi-literate erks to find out if they have managed to fiddle a few bob. The dead hand on the taxman seems to have been learning from the French and will lead to stifling of initiative, particularly if they are able to bend the rules to their pleasure.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100009100/hmrc-targets-middle-class-tax-evaders/

[Hereford]

900 million pounds to train 200 people  !!  No way.

On last paragraph one should note that "avoidance" is legal, "evasion" is not.

Mrs H

[Hoddy]

Good luck to them ! If they catch my ex son-in-law who hasn't filed a tax return for the last three years it will go some way to restoring my faith in government.

Hoddy

[Gluestick]

One problem with this, Woolly.

Just for a change, the European Human Rights Act works in favour of the good guys.

During the past few years, ploys used by VAT snoopers, such as demanding from wholesalers copies of cash bills paid by take-away food operators have been successfully challenged.

HMRC staff must now be very careful what they do and how they do it.

I suggest that a tax inspector masquerading as a punter in a pub to gain intelligence from suspected tax cheats might well be successfully challenged.

As matters now stand and thanks to government's crass attitude to driving down costs, HMRC's staff have been de-skilled, the people who actually knew anything have been retired off early where possible and what was Inland Revenue is an unhappy amalgam of functions which include what were previously HM Customs; Contributions Agency (National Insurance), HM Inland Revenue (Both departments: Inspectors and Collectors): and meanwhile, huge changes have been made, including to Self-Employed taxation, Corporation Tax, CIS (Construction Industry Scheme), Family Credits keep on going.

People who set up a limited liability company and stiff HMRC for PAYE deductions and VAT, amongst other things, just simply walk away.

Unless its millions............

As just one example.

[woolybanana]

Don't doubt what you say for a minute Gluey.

I have no problem with people paying their fair wack but do object to a predatory, almost vindictive tax gathering system which targets people and which uses secrecy and backhanded methods to "trap" its victims. Not that investigation should not be thorough.

[Gluestick]

I have the whole misfortune, Woolly, of being an accountant in public practice.

Most of my professional work these days, thankfully, is consulting: though we do have a busy tax and accounting side.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="Hereford"]

On last paragraph one should note that "avoidance" is legal, "evasion" is not.

Mrs H

[/quote]

Interesting comment, Mrs H.

However, to demonstrate how insane it has become, one must register any new "Tax Avoidance Scheme" with HMRC, before it can be used!

Now the whole point of clever and detailed Tax Planning (As we prefer to call it) is finding loopholes and putative Tax Shelters in extant tax law and codes.

Whereupon with some success, the Revenue whinge to government: and they change the law to block that loophole.

Or the revenue attack the taxpayer and run them right up to, now, the Supreme Court (Used to be the Lords) seeking a judgment.

If they lose, then the law is changed.

Now it's rather like Mr Big advising the police he plans to knock off the Crown Jewels next Wednesday!

This is really how stupid it has all become.

Meanwhile the clever guys are getting away with millions in loads of ways.

[crossy67]

Good on em I say.

I run a straight small business and  find it increasingly difficult, often impossible to compete with other companies who work for the bank of back pocket.  I know of many who do it one for me, one for them.  They are damaging and often putting genuine companies out of business as they just can't compete yet there never seems to be anything done about them.

Wait and see if anything really does come of this new incentive or if it's just smoke and mirrors scare tactics.

[Chancer]

Just a scare tactic surely!

Well before the UK spending cuts were announced in detail I was speaking with the now grown up little boy next door in England, he has risen through the I.R. ranks and is now a super tax inspector.

He told me as things stood  you would be particularly unlucky to have a routine investigation, Indeed I never had one in 20 years of business and only one cursory VAT inspection, and with the forthcoming cuts (he was forecasting up to 40%) it will be far less likely.

So given the spending cuts of how ever many percent it is for the Inland revenue this can only be a cheap and desperate attempt at a detterant, a bit like the articles that surface regularly saying that cats eyes have a built in solar powered radar camera that transmits the images and reg plate info by radio or microwave.

[crossy67]

We had both a VAT and personal tax investigation within 18 months of starting our business, how lucky were we?

Julie's ex boss's husband was a tax inspector and her boss was a nasty vindictive person too lol, coincidence, or may be not.  Luckily Julie is fastidious with record keeping and all was well.  They did pull her on two entries for personal mileages, luckily she had kept the letters confirming her place on the HMRC courses she had claimed her mileage for.  She sent the inspector home red faced when she corrected him on a few of the points he tried to pull her up on.  It was really funny sitting in the office listening to him telling her how she should be doing something then her telling him she had been shown the correct way on one of those courses, he went out to his car for 1/2 an hour then came back in a bit red faced and announced all was well and he was going to leave us in piece.[:P]