<b>Opinion:</b> Time to grass? By Simon Sweetman
Recent advertisements by HMRC seems to reinforce the stereotype that small business is constantly on the fiddle, says Simon Sweetman
You may have seen the latest advertisements put out by HMRC, perhaps the one that shows a plumber cowering under the sink to avoid the (unspecified) forcers of righteousness which are aiming to make sure he pays the right amount of tax.
With your help, it reads, we'll make sure self employed people who don't pay their tax have nowhere to hide, and it gives you a freephone number to ring.
Continued...
The full article is available to registered AccountingWEB members only. To read the rest of this article you’ll need to login or register.
Registration is FREE and allows you to view all content, ask questions, comment and much more.
Or if you are already registered, login here
Hear, hear
yet another non-effective use of tax payers money - another advertising campaign! Running a small business is no easy task, with most people making just enough to pay their hideous mortgage costs. I can well understand the feeling of persecution. Perhaps we should all hang up our hats and coats and get down the benefit office, rather than contribute to society in any way at all.
Re Julie - Hear hear
Cannot agree more. I sometimes find it difficult to figure out why anyone would be selfemployed these days. And when you see a tax enquiry asking how many sausages a guest house provides at breakfast, when you know that large multinationals round their figures up to millions and don't seem to know the meaning of the word "disallowable" you have to wonder about just how equitable our system is. The only bright spark on the horizon at the moment is that common sense might actually prevail in the Arctic Systems case.Otherwise we might as well join Alice in Wonderland.
Not all Blue-Collar
I seem to recall that when the Inland revenue a few years ago published statistics on their dicoveries in the 'black economy' it was not plumbers or builders who were at the top of the list. The biggest tax evaders on the list at that time were teachers who fail to declare their personal tutoring. Such income and the number of teachers involved has I am sure expanded greatly in the past 5 years. Will we be seeing an advertisement with a teacher hiding in the store cupboard?
A Small rant!!
When tax law and the advice that can be given to clients is affected by changes of mind by the policy setters, (and bad grace over bad drafting)-as a couple of recent examples-legitimate use of incorporation to take advantage of a given 0% tax break, and the resultant surge in the number of new company registrations used as a statistic by the government to show how well the economy is doing, then withdrawn because it is being abused---(government speak for "everyone is doing it", when the whole pensions industry and professionals gear up to implement advantagious changes in the pensions law, only to have the tax break withdrawn at the last minute because of the cost, (a cost that everyone except the chancelor seems to have seen), is it any wonder that there is cynicism and mistrust.
Add to that the overview now coming from HMRC that to try and minimise the last line of your profit and loss account, because that is all tax is, is now as morally wrong as just opting out, then is it any wonder that there is conflict over what always used to be seen as a fair battle.
And that is before we consider the cynicism in expecting to be treated fairly caused by the Revenues attitude over the Arctic Systems case.
If only we believed in the tax system
If all of us were convinced of the correct nature of the tax system the number of people fiddling it would dramatically reduce. And we would have no problem in encouraging others to pay. As it is the tax collected disappears into a murky pool and we find ourselves funding illegal invasions of Foreign countries and other less than ethical ventures. So no I would never grass on anyone not paying their taxes. It should be up to their own conscience.
Clarity & Consistency
Alastair comments:
"I was taught that you either are breaking the law or you are not - you can't break the law "just a little bit"!"
Which is all very well but it assumes that the law is written with sufficient clarity and applied with sufficient consistency for taxpayers/advisors to know what is breaking the law and what is not.
none of the above
evading taxes does not make you evil, however morraly corrupt it is - but it does make you a law breaker, and I was taught that you either are breaking the law or you are not - you can't break the law "just a little bit"!
History lesson
The 'snitch on a neighbour' campaign remind anyone else of Nazi Germany? Are our friends to disappear in the night?
Who is more evil ?
Who is more evil -
(a) A sole trader who pays £20k of tax and evade 10k of tax
(b) a scrouger who fradulently claim £10k of benefits/tax credits
(c) A multinational who structure itself and hence pay £100 million less tax ?
(d) A billionaire Andorra/Monaco resident who comes to UK 3.5 days week and use the state resources as he/she sees fit.
(e) A goverment who squandered millions on consultants and ill thought out tax credits but does not have money to fund NHS Herceptin drug ?
In term of punishments, the multinational and the billionair have not even broken the law. The scroger will get 50 years to repay his/her ill gotten gain at 0% interest and the sole trader will either face a big fine if not imprisonment. Interesting isn't it ?
And so for the sake of it, a self employ plumber with a wife with breast cancer - should he use the money he has in hand to pay the taxes or to fund his wife's private treatment ?