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Fiddling the system while working how common is this?
1manonthebog
Posts: 3,707 Forum Member
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I'm curious how common this is, I might be naive but I didn't think this happened.
I was talking to an in law yesterday, he told me he earns £2k per month self employed. He apparently only declares £800 of it, why I asked? To reduce his tax bill and so his wife can claim tax credits and the rest of the perks such as free school dinners, free dental care etc. It then gets better, he tells me his Mrs who only works 16 hours per week only declares 5 hours.
You ****s I thought. There I am working 40 hours per week for minimum wage which is less than half of what your earning per month and we get damn all. We get some child tax credits but damn all else.
It's made me wonder how common this type of scamming is?
I was talking to an in law yesterday, he told me he earns £2k per month self employed. He apparently only declares £800 of it, why I asked? To reduce his tax bill and so his wife can claim tax credits and the rest of the perks such as free school dinners, free dental care etc. It then gets better, he tells me his Mrs who only works 16 hours per week only declares 5 hours.
You ****s I thought. There I am working 40 hours per week for minimum wage which is less than half of what your earning per month and we get damn all. We get some child tax credits but damn all else.
It's made me wonder how common this type of scamming is?
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Yes that would help family relations. I would love to though as it angers me.
You don't have to tell them you're doing it! You can report them anonymously.
About as common as the sun rising every day.
A lot of people will read your OP, and identify YOU as the mug, not me though I hasten to add.
For the few years that I was self-employed I lied through my teeth about my actual income, guided with a few pointers from my accountant, who advised me on places to put money that were virtually no go areas for the tax man, all perfectly legal, just little loopholes that the government were too blind to see, or didn't care about.
His staple advice was, don't get greedy, keep it small.
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Yes its wrong - especially as the Govt badly need tax avoidance to fund housing benefits for terrorists planning to blow up or kill us according to latest news reports.
but the op's in-laws are treading very dangerously by fiddling that much. you cant earn £2k a month and only declare 40% of it without it becoming obvious to tax inspectors, who look at your standard of living to estimate how much you earn.
so if you are living in a house worth x amount, driving a car worth x amount, buying goods worth x amount, they can, and do, estimate what you are earning. if this tallies, theyll probably look no further, but if the standard of living youre enjoying seems higher then all declared income they will investigate, and prosecute.
They'd have to PROVE it though as an estimate of income just wouldn't stand up in court and what a person buys doesn't prove what a person is earning necessarily. They may have private means or generous parents or something.
Of course they'd know who's done it when he's talked abuut it to this relative! Not hard to work out who has snitched. I'd keep my nose out OP. Live and let live. You only had to watch that recent Ch5. series to know there's scams and cheating going on everywhere all the time.
tax avoidance is big in the uk, think of all those offshore registered businesses that corporates and wealthy utilise. its estimated to be up to £100 billion (some say minimum of around £30 billion).
in terms of a % of benefits bill the cost of fraud and government errors its around 0.7% of the total.
unlikely. this story serves a political agenda rather than it being a reality despite the court claiming otherwise.
I'm like you, work 40 a week for shit wages, over 4 different sites but where's the use in me crying because someone knows how to get around stuff? Fair play to them I say.
This can severely reduce the scope for borrowing.
but you know its illegal for the working man to fiddle a few pounds whilst its perfectly ok for the fat cats to extort billions.. >:(
Unfortunately in my experience, very common.
People are ultimately selfish and do not care.
Report him.
If the matter was investigated then they would have to prove to HMRC they had private means or generous parents.
Someone like the OP describes has probably shared what he's doing with lots of other people with pride.
And if you need to contact them you can do it on line, which they ignore, or by telephone at 60p per minute
Silly move by Chancellor Gordon Brown to reduce tax offices and staff, it's not wonder that people give up and fiddle their affairs
At least with cash businesses they are putting the money back into the British economy.
I disagree. They don't tell you that someone has snitched, as you call it. They can just do a review and when anomalies are recognised, they'll investigate everything.
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Did you mean it was all fiction - Same as the reporting of The Govt scrapping their NHS computer system at a cost to taxpayers of £12-Billion - Down the drain ..