Avoiding Tax

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

It seems that this board is being bombarded with questions or comments about 'avoidance schemes' which guarantee you take home pay of 85 or 90%. I can see that paying as little tax as possible would be appealing and there is nothing wrong with trying to minimise your liabilities through legal channels. However, one fundamental rule will always stand: If you live in the UK, are tax resident in the UK and your income is earned in the UK you are liable for UK tax.

There are many ways to delay paying tax (EBT schemes), there are ways of trying to cheat the taxman (fiddling your expenses and keeping your fingers crossed) but there is no way that you will take home 85% of your income legally unless you only earn a couple of hundred pounds a week or you are prepared to make massive contributions to a pension scheme.

Also please bear in mind - HMR&C DO NOT EVER approve tax schemes so a claim of HMR&C approved is a lie, nothing more and nothing less.

[sal626]

As the dude says… “Well, that's just, like…..your opinion, man!”

[northernladuk]

As the dude says… “Well, that's just, like…..your opinion, man!”

Have a look at thBN66 thread and all the other resources on the web that are having problems with these and then tell us it is just an opinon

[sal626]

We all have, many times…

Fact: EBT schemes are different to BN66
Fact: No one (AFAIK) has been done on an EBT scheme
Fact: there are already 2 Special commissioner rulings against HMRC on EBTs (Sempra and Dextra – HMRC did not even appeal against Dextra)
Fact: EBT schemes are going to be closed down via legislation in april 2011.

Not known: If the legislation is going to be retrospective or not….

I personally think not, but yes, outcome on BN66 case may have an impact.

But already some EBT scheme providers have said that retrospective tax is against human rights and are willing to appeal all the way to European HR courts…

Lisa's opinion is that EBTs are illegal, but there is actually more case law supporting then notion that they are legal...so yes, it is just her opinion.

[CheeseSlice]

AFAIK: No one has been done on an EBT scheme

Dont say its a fact if you're not 100% sure it is. This leads me to consider your other 'facts' with a large pinch of salt.

[sal626]

I can never be 100% sure, because there may be EBTs schemes that we have not heard about or are not mentioned on this or other forums...

Maybe a better way to phase it would be that "of all the schemes that I have heard about and have been mentioned on these forums, none of thier users have been done so far"...

Facts 3 and 4 are in the public domain, anyone can search for this info...

[SueEllen]

As the dude says… “Well, that's just, like…..your opinion, man!”

Yeah and it's a professional one.

Is yours a professional one i.e. are you a qualified accountant in the UK?

[THEPUMA]

Yeah and it's a professional one.

Is yours a professional one i.e. are you a qualified accountant in the UK?

To give some balance to this, before this guy gets slated for expressing a reasonable and probably well-informed opinion, I am a professionally qualified accountant in the UK and I have more sympathy with sal626's standpoint than Lisa's.

I sell a vanilla limited company service so don't stand to benefit at all from this stance. Quite the opposit in fact.

But to state as absolute gospel fact that not one tax scheme could ever possibly in the world ever work is just nonsense. I can just see the big 4 accountancy firms shutting down their tax avoidance scheme departments right now. QC's opinion says it works but LisaContractorUmbrella from CUK says it doesn't!

Some work. Some don't. Some work now and will be legislated against in the future.

I wouldn't advise a client or potential client to touch most of them with a bargepole (there are some exceptions in some circumstances) but I could never tell anyone with absolute certainty that none of them work.

Puma

[escapeUK]

However, one fundamental rule will always stand: If you live in the UK, are tax resident in the UK and your income is earned in the UK you are liable for UK tax.

Yes, so all sign up with Lisa's umbrella and pay your two lots of NI like good little wage slaves.

[BolshieBastard]

Did the OP start this thread as the basis for a free advertisement of their services?

I thought you had to pay CUK to advertise!?

Personally, I would touch an brollie with a barge pole but that's my informed choice.