“ I owe £180,000 in tax and I haven’t told my wife”

[fullyautomatix]

It won't make any difference for them as HMRC want the money they are owed. Hopefully it will help discourage others from joiningsich schemes

i am afraid as long as schemes exist, the greedy mugs who join up will also exist.

[Old Greg]

“ It's a massive amount of pressure. I've sort of kept it to myself. My family don't know about this and I've often thought: 'Is that the right decision?' But I wouldn't want to put them through all this."

John is not his real name but he didn't want to be identified. After all, he has spent more than two years keeping his financial worries hidden from his wife.

He is one of an estimated 50,000 people who have been hit by a controversial tax policy known as the loan charge. As a result, he now owes £180,000 to HMRC.

The pressure of the last two years has been enormous. He told BBC Radio 4's File on 4: "It's really tough. I can't tell you the last time I slept and it's difficult. It's just relentless, with no real end in sight."

This substantial tax bill stems from how John was paid when he worked as a contractor for a number of years.”

“ There's a lot of people who just think I was a tax dodger and that's not the case," says John.

"It was more about the ease. If someone had said to me: 'You can take 90% [of earnings] but it's illegal,' would I have done it? Absolutely not.”

‘I owe GBP180,000 in tax and I haven’t told my wife’ - BBC News

....

Well it all seemed pretty straightforward at the time.

Workers would be paid a small amount of salary as a standard, taxable income. Then they would receive a larger payment as a loan via an offshore trust.


Only a very small amount of tax was paid on these loans and there was no expectation they would be repaid.

[Andy Hallett]

I do have 15% sympathy with these guys.

[helen7]

"It was more about the ease. If someone had said to me: 'You can take 90% [of earnings] but it's illegal,' would I have done it? Absolutely not.”


....

Yet somebody said to you : "You can pretend your income is a loan that you never have to pay back, and you won't pay any tax..wink wink, nudge nudge - its what all us wealthy people do. Tax is for the common folk."

There is no escaping it, myself included. We all knew these schemes were an absolute sham. We were just stupid enough to think we would be able to get away with it.

[cojak]

shouldn't this be in the HMRC loans thread?

No, it shouldn't - I'd have to remove everyone's posts if it was.

[cojak]

I have heard of a wife who only discovered the size of their debt issues (nothing to do with tax avoidance) when the bailiffs arrived to evict them from their house that day.

[eek]

I will tell you the story when we next meet - but being blunt the wife was as bad as the husband was and both deserved this.

[DealorNoDeal]

There is no escaping it, myself included. We all knew these schemes were an absolute sham. We were just stupid enough to think we would be able to get away with it.

I find it hard to believe that many people genuinely thought that using a scheme was 100% kosher. The vast majority of people must have known that it was a bit iffy, and that HMRC would go after it.

[cojak]

The vast majority of people must have known that it was a bit iffy, and that HMRC would go after it.

The first bit yes, the second it didn't even enter their heads I expect.

Or if it did HMRC wouldn't go after them.

The bit I'm always open-mouthed about is the "but I was assured [by the salesman] that it was all legal and HMRC approved!!" defence.

[eek]

The first bit yes, the second it didn't even enter their heads I expect.

Or if it did HMRC wouldn't go after them.

The bit I'm always open-mouthed about is the "but I was assured [by the salesman] that it was all legal and HMRC approved!!" defence.

HMRC now admit (off the record) that the idea of using DOTAS as a means of regulating schemes was a bit useless - as it allowed salesman to say HMRC approved on it and then quoted the DOTAS number as proof....