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bluesteve

  • Posts: 153
Being spyed upon
« on: September 30, 2007, 09:11:26 pm »
does anyone have any anecdotal evidence of the inland revenue using ,spying on or reading forums like this, i ask this because if i was a tax investigator i d be doing my homework on these types of sites.
  When i lived in the south west i knew a taxman who's part of his role was to go round shop windows checking out the small ads they have in shop windows , know this was in the earlier 90s before the internet took off. So if they were prepared to do that then ............
   For the record im not bothered, im all kosher and legit, but i 'd just like to know if anyones got any taxman stories? or heard of any
   cheers Steve  
"Soldier an' Sailor too" !

East coast window cleaning Services

  • Posts: 1458
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2007, 09:15:24 pm »
Not sure mate but i pay me tax.....
P&R Window Cleaning

Chris Cottrell

  • Posts: 3162
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2007, 09:22:47 pm »
Not sure mate but i pay me tax...

Say whats on ya mind wont ya ;D

cvdewsbury

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2007, 09:24:45 pm »
i had a letter once from them to see if i could help them with some details mainly about how much w/c could earn per hour how many days per week we could work etc ..Nowadays they don,t need to carryout this underneath approach  just observe this site....

jouk45

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2007, 09:27:47 pm »
even if they did see you saying what you earned on here, all you need to say is that you where just bragging,  ;D

Paul Coleman

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2007, 11:12:52 pm »
does anyone have any anecdotal evidence of the inland revenue using ,spying on or reading forums like this, i ask this because if i was a tax investigator i d be doing my homework on these types of sites.
  When i lived in the south west i knew a taxman who's part of his role was to go round shop windows checking out the small ads they have in shop windows , know this was in the earlier 90s before the internet took off. So if they were prepared to do that then ............
   For the record im not bothered, im all kosher and legit, but i 'd just like to know if anyones got any taxman stories? or heard of any
   cheers Steve  

Oh yes.  I knew a guy who worked for them and did such work.  He told me a few stories too - like the guy who would acquire extra fuel receipts.  Apparently he was found out because he had a petrol vehicle and a number of his receipts were for diesel.  It probably didn't help his cause that he appeared to be doing about 5 miles to the gallon.  I would be amazed if they didn't keep tabs on forums like this.
Like you, I'm not really bothered as I play it straight anyway.
However, they can't really tell what someone is earning just by looking at a sample of work.
If all my work paid like my best work and I W/C'd 35 hours a week, I would be turning over 50 grand+.  In reality it's barely half that, though I have the work in place to improve considerably on that in the year to come.

Moderator David@stives

  • Posts: 8829
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2007, 11:17:56 pm »
I reckon 100% the tax man frequents this site.

He only has to look through your letter box to see what your household income is.

Moderator David@stives

  • Posts: 8829

jeff1

  • Posts: 5855
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2007, 11:32:06 pm »
My real Name is KEN DODD  ;D ;D ;D

Paul Coleman

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2007, 11:44:16 am »
My real Name is KEN DOD  ;D ;D ;D

And I'm Lester Piggott   ;D

matt

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2007, 12:04:23 pm »
well they can see im home, its raining and i DO NOT work in the rain


Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2007, 03:33:39 pm »
I would say almost certainly not. It's possible that they might look for general indications of earnings, and upper and lower levels. They are always looking for people who seek to avoid paying tax altogether, but in the sense that you mean, someone bragging that they earn earn £500 pw and then checking if this tallies no.

They have more than their work cut out dealing with people shopping each other over such matters. I've had jealousy in the past, but the taxman has always dealt with me fairly. There is some kind of charter about fairness, and if you could prove they had exceeded their brief then they would be in more trouble than you would.

The advice is to keep proper records that are clear and easy to follow and if in doubt ring the tax office and ask.

(Oh Yeah I almost forgot. Be nice to me in future because you never know ;D ;D ;D!)

gmcs

  • Posts: 174
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #12 on: October 01, 2007, 05:13:23 pm »
I don't care I pay my tax on what I earn If "The Cowboys" want to hide what they earn I hope they get caught out and leave the reat of us who do pay TAX & NI alone  ;D

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2007, 07:27:50 pm »
I know of a Tax Inspector, well i know her brother anyway.

I got talking to her on this subject & yes they do. Was told if year on year your returns are showing a small profit & your always paying no tax or very little, they will do a chack. Like drive past & look at your home, car etc, follow now & again you while at work to see if it matches your tax return. They may do this over a couple of years i was told as they can ask for 7 years of books.

This happened to a mate of mine in London & he was ammased what they new. Because he could not prove or disprove what they said the end result was he owed in eccess of £50,000 in fines, interest & estimated tax he owed.

Macc

tonyoliver

  • Posts: 602
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #14 on: October 01, 2007, 08:42:43 pm »
i am told you should  put your money cash in a spanish euro account just like the taxi drivers do

simbo

  • Posts: 609
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2007, 08:52:07 pm »
with all the government cutbacks to their staff i think they would be looking at bigger fish. we can all earn good money somedays but not all! i have no problems with paying my share of tax apart from extortionate council taxes
simbo ;)

mark dew

  • Posts: 2901
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #16 on: October 02, 2007, 01:20:11 am »
I think whether they do or not all the time is irrelevant. You have got to assume they do and that if they bring the full weight of their resources in your direction it would take a very lucky chappy to get away with anything much. Fortunately, there are plenty of people about who are more deserving of the taxman's might. Just don't take the pee, they can only be in so many places for so much of the time. It's when the spotlight is focused on you that you have to have to worry or thank your lucky stars that you are legit!
 

Bertie Boo

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #17 on: October 02, 2007, 01:49:54 am »
I know of a Tax Inspector, well i know her brother anyway.

I got talking to her on this subject & yes they do. Was told if year on year your returns are showing a small profit & your always paying no tax or very little, they will do a chack. Like drive past & look at your home, car etc, follow now & again you while at work to see if it matches your tax return. They may do this over a couple of years i was told as they can ask for 7 years of books.

This happened to a mate of mine in London & he was ammased what they new. Because he could not prove or disprove what they said the end result was he owed in eccess of £50,000 in fines, interest & estimated tax he owed.

Macc

Hey Macc

Two questions: (1) what can they find out by following you whilst working (serious question)

(2) My accountant said that my business will always be one that shows little or no profit -at least in the early years- and the tax payable very low. He assured me that this will present no problems and that its his job to see that my accounts are correct - indeed he said that the fact that i am using an accountant shows to the Inland Revenue that i am running a legit service. But you got me worried now?  :-\ I dont really understand this side of my business which is why i pay an accountant to help -or, more to the point, do it for me.

Cheers

Stephen

williamx

Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #18 on: October 02, 2007, 10:10:42 am »
About 30years ago I worked for a taxi firm that use to take the tax man on home visits, as you get talking they admitted that they know that every business, fiddles their returns, but its the ones who are taking the micky who they go after.

An important point to remember is that you are not the only self-employed person doing your trade, there are many many thousands, and most are nearly almost honest with their returns, by looking at what these people earn they can work out an acceptable level that everyone will be earning for the hours they say they work.

Also what are you going to do with the money you have fiddled, you can't put it into a bank because they will want to see records of where it came from, you can't have a nice new motor or holiday or designer clothes because they are too visable and you have to prove where you got the money from.

So all you are left with, is a new matress, stuffed with money, that you can't use.

john tomkins

  • Posts: 1639
Re: Being spyed upon
« Reply #19 on: October 02, 2007, 12:32:59 pm »
Also what are you going to do with the money you have fiddled, you can't put it into a bank because they will want to see records of where it came from, you can't have a nice new motor or holiday or designer clothes because they are too visable and you have to prove where you got the money from.

So all you are left with, is a new matress, stuffed with money, that you can't use.

I assume you are talking about thousands of pounds  not the odd 100 here and there, you could always say you had a few good wins at the bookies.... no way of disproving that ;D