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Jailed accountant gives tax seminar to inmates

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30th May 2014
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A former chartered accountant who was jailed for a £60,000 fraud is helping inmates get tax rebates of up to £1,000.

AccountingWEB reported last October that Paul Retout, the former chief executive of Wrexham FC, was jailed for 16 months after submitting false invoices to London-based Quadrangle group where he was a partner, media reported at the time.

But Retout who was sent to HMP Wandsworth in London, has been offering inmates ‘tax seminars’, according to the Daily Mail.

Writing in Inside Time magazine, Retout said many of the UK's 85,000 prisoners are due a tax rebate.

He claims prisoners most likely to be in line for a 'windfall' are those who were jailed before reaching the annual £9,440 personal tax threshold, but who paid tax on earnings before being imprisoned.

The Mail reported him as saying: "While I was recently in prison I volunteered to run a two hour taxation seminar under the business start-up education programme, and to share my tax experiences of setting up a business with my fellow prisoners.

"What surprised me was that several prisoners attending the seminar were due tax refunds and were simply not aware of the fact."
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Replies (18)

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By rigsby
31st May 2014 08:38

Shawshank Redemption!

I thought the Accountants name was Andy Dufresene

Maybe they should make a film about it- oops already been done.

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By User deleted
01st Jun 2014 20:16

A word of caution

This thread is based on a report in the Daily Fail. Excuse me while I fill my bucket with salt.

BTW - sp ...

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By ShirleyM
01st Jun 2014 21:40

Families on benefits?

He gets free board & lodging and his family get benefits. The other inmates get a free education and lots of free time to study. No University fees either.

Why is that criminals get better education and even one-to-one 24 hr nursing when necessary (to stop them from starving themselves to death), whereas law abiding people can starve for all the government cares.

Even violent offenders get the comparative freedom of open prisons, and then go walkies!

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Replying to Open all hours:
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By Ken of Chester le Street
02nd Jun 2014 14:33

Families on benefits

 

This is  is a non-sequiter. Someone is paying a penalty that a judge decided, rightly or wrongly, was condign. A tax repayment is a debt owed to the prisoner, and should be paid to him., nothing to do with his offence. There are a lot  of taxpayers not getting their balance of allowances, sometimes because their earning capability was precipitately stopped,  sometimes because they died part way through the tax year and their personal representatives didn't know they  had overpaid tax on occupational pensions. This is an injustice, in the latter instance, an injustice to widows.

  I wonder whether imprisonment counts as reasonable excuse for failure to file a return. Especially with an  accountant in the next cell?

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Replying to Kaylee100:
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By Ken of Chester le Street
03rd Jun 2014 11:12

Families on benefits

 

This is  is a non-sequiter. Someone is paying a penalty that a judge decided, rightly or wrongly, was condign. A tax repayment is a debt owed to the prisoner, and should be paid to him., nothing to do with his offence. There are a lot  of taxpayers not getting their balance of allowances, sometimes because their earning capability was precipitately stopped,  sometimes because they died part way through the tax year and their personal representatives didn't know they  had overpaid tax on occupational pensions. This is an injustice, in the latter instance, an injustice to widows.

  I wonder whether imprisonment counts as reasonable excuse for failure to file a return. Especially with an  accountant in the next cell?.

This was a reply to Shiurley M, of 01/06/14   , but got separated from other benefits.  I have quoted it above.

 

For the record, I believe the Goverments attitude to benefits is apalling.  This does not affect the fact that a taxpayer's repayment is the porperty of  the taxpayer. Befoe the days of self-assessment and oindependant taxation, I was asked to get a repayment for an ex-prisoner, whose crime had been despicable. But he had paid for it, and so had his family, who needed the money.  

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Replying to Open all hours:
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By vinylnobbynobbs
04th Jun 2014 12:13

Retired People into the Prisons

ShirleyM wrote:

He gets free board & lodging and his family get benefits. The other inmates get a free education and lots of free time to study. No University fees either.

Why is that criminals get better education and even one-to-one 24 hr nursing when necessary (to stop them from starving themselves to death), whereas law abiding people can starve for all the government cares.

Even violent offenders get the comparative freedom of open prisons, and then go walkies!

 

Prisoners into the "Care Homes"?

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Replying to sparkler:
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By The Black Knight
04th Jun 2014 12:43

makes sense

vinylnobbynobbs wrote:

ShirleyM wrote:

He gets free board & lodging and his family get benefits. The other inmates get a free education and lots of free time to study. No University fees either.

Why is that criminals get better education and even one-to-one 24 hr nursing when necessary (to stop them from starving themselves to death), whereas law abiding people can starve for all the government cares.

Even violent offenders get the comparative freedom of open prisons, and then go walkies!

 

Prisoners into the "Care Homes"?

Makes sense. Tramps used to break a window to get a warm cell for the night.

Just an extension of that clever thinking.

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Replying to andy.partridge:
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By thomas34
02nd Jun 2014 07:51

Shawshank

Would you care to name the other two so that we can check out your assertions?

 

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By User deleted
02nd Jun 2014 08:50

Only two others?

thomas34 wrote:

Would you care to name the other two so that we can check out your assertions?

 

I'm sure that if you asked nicely, he could provide you with at least two hundred of his aliases.

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
02nd Jun 2014 09:22

.

Shouldn't the subheadline read

"Accountant helps inmates with skills for leaving jail"

Lets face it with jail time behind you one of the only options you have coming out is to start your own business as it will be very hard to get a job for most people. 

 

 

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By justsotax
02nd Jun 2014 09:40

thankfully

he was chartered....imagine the fuss if he was only QBE....

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Replying to johnhemming:
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By The Black Knight
02nd Jun 2014 11:54

criminal not an accountant

justsotax wrote:

he was chartered....imagine the fuss if he was only QBE....

NB the chartered badge did not afford him any protection did it?

he's a former Chartered Accountant now just a criminal.

 

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
02nd Jun 2014 10:59

sort of

@justsotax,

He is NOW QBE, he was chartered.  

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By The Black Knight
02nd Jun 2014 11:32

and

Interesting money laundering issue.

So you are giving advice (holding a seminar? mmm) to known criminals without checking their identities.

I think you could do more than advise on a wasted personal allowance. Fraudsters are often allowed to commit further fraud while still inside.

Mind you the government probably think they are growing the economy by getting more fraud onto vat returns. Or at least that's what it shows.

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By justsotax
02nd Jun 2014 13:09

OGA...you are correct

I guess he was only chartered when he carried out the crime.

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By Ken of Chester le Street
03rd Jun 2014 11:14

Don't bother publishing this comemnt, I just forgot to press the daily digest button on the last one!

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By hiu612
04th Jun 2014 14:11

Chartered

The way the institute carry on, the suspension from membership was probably shorter than the prison sentence. He may well be able to re-apply for membership whilst still in there.

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By hiu612
04th Jun 2014 14:11

Chartered

The way the institute carry on, the suspension from membership was probably shorter than the prison sentence. He may well be able to re-apply for membership whilst still in there.

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