No To Retro Tax – Campaign Against Section 58 Finance Act 2008

[eek]

They've already been telling us about this stuff for months. So why send a letter to warn you that you'll soon be getting another letter? Sounds like deliberate scare tactics to me.

Because its typical HMRC scare tactics. And in their world it means that they can turn round when you fail to pay within the time frame and say that they gave you prior warning to give you slightly more chance (which your typical MP will view as HMRC being nice rather than the utter b*****ds the letter really reveals).

All I can saw is good luck everyone and find your most photogenic bankruptcy victim to try and get some press out of it....

[DonkeyRhubarb]

It's standard procedure apparently. First they write to the promoter, then the clients and then issue APNs.

[orientalist]

Civil disobedience

It's standard procedure apparently. First they write to the promoter, then the clients and then issue APNs.

What would happen if we all, en masse, just refused to pay, don't appeal, just don't pay.....

[DonkeyRhubarb]

What would happen if we all, en masse, just refused to pay, don't appeal, just don't pay.....

Firstly we would incur penalties.

At the moment HMRC appear to be treading lightly. An orchestrated action like this would probably give them the green light to play really hardball.

IMO, judicial review is the better way to resist this.

[Morlock]

What would happen if we all, en masse, just refused to pay, don't appeal, just don't pay.....

prison?

[SantaClaus]

What would happen if we all, en masse, just refused to pay, don't appeal, just don't pay.....

Would that be evasion?

Ah, but hang on, evaders are treated better than avoiders!

Note to self: must open account with HSBC.

[smalldog]

What would happen if we all, en masse, just refused to pay, don't appeal, just don't pay.....

We would lose any and all support from MP's, govt officials and some influential people which would give HMRC all the power they need to take us all to the cleaners, i.e. distraint etc.

[slatt]

They've already been telling us about this stuff for months. So why send a letter to warn you that you'll soon be getting another letter? Sounds like deliberate scare tactics to me.

if I remember rightly this was one of their "concessions" when pushing the APN law through, they very kindly said that no one would be surprised by an APN because they would write to everyone before they sent them out, to give people time to get ready.

Which was nice of them, wasn't it

[orientalist]

Firstly we would incur penalties.

At the moment HMRC appear to be treading lightly. An orchestrated action like this would probably give them the green light to play really hardball.

IMO, judicial review is the better way to resist this.

I may have agreed 7 years ago when i believed in the judicial system....

[OnYourBikeGB]

What would happen if we all, en masse, just refused to pay, don't appeal, just don't pay.....

They'd use distraint eventually to seize everything they could. Flog it off at a pathetic price and hold you liable for the difference. Realistically, we are nothing to them.

I have detected a slight change in the mood though. There's a lot more emphasis on the difference between evasion and avoidance, especially where it involves Tories or their wealthy donors. There's a lot more stories about the HMRC jackboot including radio interviews where their targets are allowed to give their stories unopposed. When all the dust settles on this, who is going to be the winner? I plan on shutting my business whether we win or not, I've had enough. Some others no doubt are thinking the same, some will be forced to. In a few years, if even that, the tax lost through those businesses not existing will far surpass the meagre amounts they're going to get in. Freelance work is not an attractive industry. Constant attacks by HMRC and the Government make it uncertain, insecure and unattractive. The only people who gain out of this will non-UK based body shoppers who can come close to matching the affordable rates of freelancers, and that revenue won't be generating much tax for the UK. If they win, and they may not, it will do nothing to help the UK economy. I wonder who they'll blame that on?