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Sounds like a zero enforcement policy
How can solicitors claim they didn't know what income they had to pay tax on? If HMRC know a particular solicitor hasn't paid tax, why don't they just open an enquiry? Most solicitors I know are so thick skinned that if they haven't already declared income they are not going to be frightened into doing so now. I'll bet the yield on this one is paltry.
why dont they just open an enquiry?
Because they haven't got the resource.
This is their attempt at doing it on the cheap. Its a natural progression really. First self assessment , now self-investigation.
I've described it before as the Wizard of Oz technique and it is.
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I am curious how solicitors go about avoiding large sums of tax.
Compared to accountants at least, they tend to work in quite large organisations. There are not that many "lone wolfs". Most are in 5-10 people firms.
The only fiddle I know about is they tend to pocket the £10 or £20 charged for witnessing documents. It is amazing how many solictors will do this, and how few (if you do their tax returns) ever have any to declare!
Easy peasy
All HMRC has to do is look for the Money Laundering Reports the briefs will have filed on themselves.
Solicitors now, Accountants next
What next, will it be accountants being picked on? When will these grubby little people authorized by a non entity government relent.
It goes to show that most people in government/ local government departments (those higher up the scale rather than their low paid minnions) are athiests. How do I come by making that comment - because they pick on these main parts of the religous calendar to go after extra money and aim to get it no matter what the cost is to law biding citizens.