Self-assessment tax returns: builders and taxi drivers make the most mistakes

[SimonMac]

What about premier league football managers dogs?

[d000hg]

Trust me. My nephew's a builder, and he can get on his mobile and order a lorryload of stuff to build an extension on the spot while he's looking at an empty space.

He'll have three bricks, two roof tiles and one plank left over when it's built.

They can count alright :-)

And I know trigonometry but I'm crap at snooker and couldn't build a shed. Practical and academic are totally different.

Aren't London taxi drivers supposed to have one are of their brain hugely developed to cope with all the routes they have to memorise? Expect, like Homer Simpson, it pushes other stuff out.

PS Tax is all wasted anyway!!!
PPS Yes it is, dooogh!

I think they just have SatNav.

[xoggoth]

Aren't London taxi drivers supposed to have one are of their brain hugely developed to cope with all the routes they have to memorise? Expect, like Homer Simpson, it pushes other stuff out.

PS Tax is all wasted anyway!!!
PPS Yes it is, dooogh!

[KimberleyChris]

Trust me. My nephew's a builder, and he can get on his mobile and order a lorryload of stuff to build an extension on the spot while he's looking at an empty space.

He'll have three bricks, two roof tiles and one plank left over when it's built.

They can count alright :-)

[d000hg]

Are you saying taxi drivers and builders can't count?

What about IT consultants?

Your typical builder may be very skilled, but quite probably is not very academically bright and terrified of official forms (as are so many people). Nothing wrong with that.

[AtW]

Deliberate 'mistakes' aside, it makes sense people who are generally not particularly well educated would stuff up their forms even if they tried hard not to.

Are you saying taxi drivers and builders can't count?

What about IT consultants?

[d000hg]

Self-assessment tax returns: builders and taxi drivers making the most of their mistakes

FTFY

Deliberate 'mistakes' aside, it makes sense people who are generally not particularly well educated would stuff up their forms even if they tried hard not to.

[KimberleyChris]

Don't mention Taxi Drivers.

Chris, Whitehaven.

[Paddy]

Self-assessment tax returns: builders and taxi drivers making the most of their mistakes

FTFY

[AtW]

According to a survey of accountants conducted by Bloomsbury Professional, one in three builders provide incorrect information on their tax returns with 11pc of taxi drivers and 9pc of IT consultants filing the wrong details too.

Builders are traditionally seen as high risk because they are often paid in cash and the sums of money involved can be quite substantial. The building sector is usually on HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) radar, with HMRC even taking the unusual step of writing to home owners who have had building work done and paid cash to ask them to disclose the identity of their builders.

Martin Casimir, spokesman of Bloomsbury Professional, said: "Perhaps more than any other trade, builders frequently deal with quite large sums of cash. This makes accurate record keeping challenging and creates numerous opportunities for tax evasion.

"Cash-in-hand [deals] with the promise of no VAT is still incredibly common. With VAT now at 20pc, the incentive for cash payments is greater than ever."

Mr Casimir said that customers often ask for a cash-in-hand discount and with competition fierce during the economic downturn, the temptation to undercut a rival quote can be irresistible.

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