Tax Investigations....

[CaribbeanPirate]

And what do you owe the tax man then Mr Tax Exile big shot ?

I owe him nothing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Andyw]

But you cant say a figure of what the taxman says you owe can you !

and a small flat in the west end is not a good amount !

[CaribbeanPirate]

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I was going to state a rough figure, but I thought better of it as it could be used against me.

All things are relative. What you could do with amount x in 2000 is different to what you can do with the same amount today. Hence the comparison with house prices.

[Andyw]

not good enough !

if you put 'without Prejudice' it cant be used in court against you !

[EternalOptimist]

If he was a plumber and got done for 28k he is either flush and hasn't bothered paying his tax and can afford it or is very very stupid and didn't take enough untraceable cash in hand

plumber, flush - very witty.

he probably went round the bend because he couldnt crack the cistern.



I'll get me coat

[wendigo100]

A mate, a builder, was in a partnership but unbeknown to him the partner hadn't been paying VAT properly. My mate's share of the bill was 40 grand, he had to take out a new mortgage to pay it.

[DaveB]

Same as it's always been. Revenue tend to be more relaxed, as long as you are not obviously taking the piss. Annoy the VAT man at your peril. They tend to take it personally.

[Andyw]

but more ruthless these days !

[tim123]

Surely this is not true - I thought there was a law which would basically state that pretty much only unpaid tax (if any) can be levied plus some extra fine on top, but nothing unreasonable, ie not £1000 fine for £100 unpaid tax.

It's not true.

The maximum penalty is 100% of the tax due.

And you have to do something really bad to get 100%.
Simple negligence 'with coperation' is going to get a 20-30% penalty.

tim

[AtW]

The maximum penalty is 100% of the tax due.

ok fair play - but at least it means that they can't slap you with £1000 fine if (say) alleged unpaid tax is £10?

If that's the case then Blaster's comment - "This is quite normal, if you get selected for investigation each little mistake is subject to a minimum £1000 penalty (or something like that), for example a receipt that can't be justified etc."

is not correct.