HMRC Task Forces rake in over £109m

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Can I ask why do you think it is not an issue of morality (as well as law)?

That's not exactly what I am saying. Tax laws are in place to give the Government the legal means to generate revenue for itself which it will then spend (in theory) on looking after the general population. Sometimes the laws that are written are badly drafted or, more often than not, are so complex and with such limited guidance, that they are naturally open to interpretation. If a lawyer has one interpretation and HMRC have another they will battle it out in Court and a Judge will decide who's right and who's wrong and that's proper and correct. When the Government, with the media's help, encourage the belief in the General Public that this is not the correct position and that tax should be decided according to morality then the Government will encourage HMRC to introduce tax legislation which may be legally questionable (such as APN's) as they will have no fear of a public backlash.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

And if you leave it to morality, the tax take would go down considerably. I'm continually surprised by people who would, I'm sure, consider themselves to be upright honest citizens who have absolutely no compunction in engaging in a bit of low level tax evasion, ie, no vat for cash or pocketing a couple of quid without declaring.

[MicrosoftBob]

That's not exactly what I am saying. Tax laws are in place to give the Government the legal means to generate revenue for itself which it will then spend on bribing the general population with it's own money, whilst introducing stealth taxes to take away more money than they're bribing you with.

FTFY

[unixman]

You have to remember that Facetube, Starbocks etc pay millions in other tax vehicles such as PAYE, NI and staff employment. They aren't just getting away with it.

Paying one tax makes it alright to "evoid" another? So that's alright then.

[LondonManc]

Paying one tax makes it alright to "evoid" another? So that's alright then.

Blame the game not the players. Just like the economic/benefits migrants we get. Not their fault that we've got a welcome mat out rather than barbed wire fences.

[unixman]

Blame the game not the players. Just like the economic/benefits migrants we get. Not their fault that we've got a welcome mat out rather than barbed wire fences.

I'm blaming HMRC and successive governments for pretending to frown upon tax "evoidance" for some, while actually running it as a business for others.

[LondonManc]

I'm blaming HMRC and successive governments for pretending to frown upon tax "evoidance" for some, while actually running it as a business for others.

I agree with you - I don't see why companies should be able to pass things from country to country as they do.

[Kelstar]

Hi, not sure if this is linked to new powers/software but I was subject to a compliance check by HMRC on my self assessment in the summer. Stressful and a bit of a hassle pulling out 100s of receipts (the year in question I travelled a lot for clients and billed them for the services).

IPSE plus member so Abbey Tax "looked after" my investigation and provided all the formal responses to HMRC along side input from my accountant.

No additional tax to pay just a lot of questions. Turns out this was triggered by a discrepancy between my P60 and SA.

[NibblyPig]

The public are dumb, we should never ask them anything.

I bet most people would have a grumble about google, starbucks etc. not paying any tax but would be very pleased they can get their boiler serviced cheaper for paying in cash

[SueEllen]

That's HMRC - keep chasing the little guy and turn a blind eye to the giants. HMRC could get this 109m and much more by just taxing Facebook properly. Perhaps they are still too busy accepting dinners from Vodafone? Or forgiving Goldman Sachs enormous tax debts ?

Happy to be schmoozed by Vodaphone. Happy to let GS off tens of millions. Happy to see Facebook paying 4k CT. But if the corner shop sends its tax return in a fortight late, Grrrr! HMRC gets angry!

HMRC have been engaged in long drawn out court battles with the likes of Ford. In other words they do go after multinationals but due to the multinationals pockets the cases end up in Europe costing lots if HMRC lose.

It's cheaper to go after the smaller guys. Though not necessarily easier if the smaller guys have appropriate insurance.