Guilty until proved innocent

[NotAllThere]

And take a time machine back to 2005

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...html#post22837

Dear Underscore2 and Rebecca Loos - where are they now?

Probably with a new user login in HMRC EBT Scheme Enquiries thread...

Fascinating. With this from Mal, 28th September 2005:

As of the last budget, Dim Prawn made it possible for future tax legislation to be made retrospective to December 2004.

[DimPrawn]

As of the last budget, Dim Prawn made it possible for future tax legislation to be made retrospective to December 2004.


Some of my finest work.

I mean (cough) her finest work.

[cojak]

The problem here isn't that people used dodgy tax schemes, although HMRC would like you to think it is.

What is happening is that HMRC are able to effectively demand money with menaces for tax bills that may or may not actually be due and force you to pay them upfront before actually being allowed to challenge whether they have got it right or not. They don't have to prove anything, they just have to make the demand. The onus is then on the tax payer to show that they paid the correct amount of tax in order to get their money back. The people who decide whether they have done that are HMRC.

If they make it work with the historical avoidance cases, which may or may not have been legitimate at the time, then you can bet they will start looking for other ways to apply it. Stand by for Advance Payment Notices for tax from Ltd contractors on the basis that they think you should have been operating inside IR35 6 years ago.

And no, having insurance from QDOS et al will not mean you don't have to pay it. It just means you might get it back at some unspecified point in the future.

And we all know the DOTAS type smoking gun question on the SA forms, don't we boys and girls?

[d000hg]

"Between 2008 and 2010, Mr Adams freelanced at various banks in London. "

Worked for 3 years in a bank and does not have 27 grand cash saved, especially given not having to pay taxes everybody else does?

Property?

That said, for someone who is earning £80k ish it shouldn't be a big ask. He said 27k is 1/3 of his salary which he says like "poor me" but means the opposite.

[MrMarkyMark]

"Between 2008 and 2010, Mr Adams freelanced at various banks in London. "

Worked for 3 years in a bank and does not have 27 grand cash saved

Fast cars, exotic holidays, loose women, drug habit.

Spent .

[NotAllThere]

Fast cars, exotic holidays, loose women, drug habit.

Spent . the rest wasted

FTFY

[cojak]

Fast cars, exotic holidays, loose women, drug habit.

Spent .

Big houses, divorces and kids will do it as well...

[suityou01]

I wonder if any of these people take this to the European court of human rights. After all I thought the right to a fair trial was a basic one.

[LondonManc]

Big houses, divorces and kids will do it as well...

Having an extension built to an average sized semi can have a similar impact too.

Gone below my ideal war chest size at the moment but hopefully will recover that next year with kids getting older and having part time jobs to self subsidise their pocket money.

[VectraMan]

Big houses, divorces and kids will do it as well...

Yes well if you only have those things because of your ill gotten gains you can't really complain about having to downsize and pay the money back. The usual sob story is "I might lose my house".

I have no sympathy for the off shore loan crowd, but I agree this "guilty until proven innocent" thing is both wrong and counter-productive as it now allows them to play the martyr.