Simple way to clamp down on tax evasion

[Justin Smith]

Not at all. Im not alone. Millions of smokers buy knock off . Why pay £20 for a pack of bacca when you can buy the same one for £8 ?

 

When you tax something to death , people see a gap in the market and supply the same product cheaper.

 

Sorry, are you saying you buy illegal cigarettes ? As well as evading paying your fair share of tax to the country ? If your "English and proud" I`d hate to think how you`d act if you weren`t.

 

---------- Post added 04-11-2016 at 14:41 ----------

 

So tax enforcement would depend on either test purchases (who test purchases a garden being weeded, or a wall being plastered), or annoyed customers randomly submitting receipts that they've been given. So the tradesmen have to be sure to put any annoyed customers through the books...

And all the time it wastes with annoyed customer invoices that ARE in the books?

 

I`d have thought a high proportion of tradesmen caught for tax evasion are from reports from the public. Far from thinking the people doing the reporting are grasses or similar, I think they`re to be applauded, they`re doing their duty to the country (and my wallet, obviously).

As for the HMRC doing test purchases, obviously that`s a load of trouble, but catching tax evaders is their job. Most police investigations are a load of trouble too.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Justin Smith

[Cyclone]

I doubt that there are many useful reports at all. I've never had access to the tax return of someone doing my plastering, so how would I know whether they are paying the correct tax or not?

[Bob Arctor]

Sorry, are you saying you buy illegal cigarettes ? As well as evading paying your fair share of tax to the country ? If your "English and proud" I`d hate to think how you`d act if you weren`t.

 

---------- Post added 04-11-2016 at 14:41 ----------

 

 

I`d have thought a high proportion of tradesmen caught for tax evasion are from reports from the public. Far from thinking the people doing the reporting are grasses or similar, I think they`re to be applauded, they`re doing their duty to the country (and my wallet, obviously).

As for the HMRC doing test purchases, obviously that`s a load of trouble, but catching tax evaders is their job. Most police investigations are a load of trouble too.

 

Maybe a bounty system would work. If you provide information that leads to successful prosecution for tax evasion you get 1% of the amount of back tax recovered.

[syne]

I doubt that there are many useful reports at all. I've never had access to the tax return of someone doing my plastering, so how would I know whether they are paying the correct tax or not?

 

I can't believe that you can't imagine the myriad ways Hmrc would snoop and investigate. Yes they'd pay for a wall to be plastered to see if it turns up on the books later.

 

Plenty of builders below, and a few buy to letters by the looks of things..

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/publishing-details-of-deliberate-tax-defaulters-pddd/current-list-of-deliberate-tax-defaulters

 

---------- Post added 06-11-2016 at 02:45 ----------

 

Maybe a bounty system would work. If you provide information that leads to successful prosecution for tax evasion you get 1% of the amount of back tax recovered.

 

You do get a reward for dropping them a dime, not a fixed percentage though but it is kinda proportional.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11671098/Taxman-pays-record-600000-to-informants.html

Edited November 6, 2016 by syne

[Petminder]

I can't believe that you can't imagine the myriad ways Hmrc would snoop and investigate. Yes they'd pay for a wall to be plastered to see if it turns up on the books later.

 

Plenty of builders below, and a few buy to letters by the looks of things..

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/publishing-details-of-deliberate-tax-defaulters-pddd/current-list-of-deliberate-tax-defaulters

 

---------- Post added 06-11-2016 at 02:45 ----------

 

 

You do get a reward for dropping them a dime, not a fixed percentage though but it is kinda proportional.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11671098/Taxman-pays-record-600000-to-informants.html

 

That would cost far more than they would gain in tax, we would end up cutting other public services just to fund the tax offices investigations into everyone's tax affairs.

[syne]

Eh? Some plasterers will do a wall for about £50.

some might do a cash house for x1000's

 

It's not hard to imagine ten grands worth of taxable income bypassing the books, they'd not do it without suspicion and it would be worth the outlay.

[Petminder]

Eh? Some plasterers will do a wall for about £50.

some might do a cash house for x1000's

 

It's not hard to imagine ten grands worth of taxable income bypassing the books, they'd not do it without suspicion and it would be worth the outlay.

 

But the tax man would need a wall to plaster, someone to arrange for the plasterer to plaster the wall, someone to look through the books of the plaster and to check it was entered on their tax return, this would require thousands of new tax officers and they will need paying, office space, admin assistants, ect.

[syne]

Read the links this sort of thing is covered in there, vast majority of the work done via computer, I'm sure it's not hard to find a wall that needs plastering.

 

Yes to do it for everyone would require many more officers, but the more you do it, the more people would think twice before doing it.

[Justin Smith]

That [paying for a wall to be replastered as a "test" purchase] would cost far more than they would gain in tax, we would end up cutting other public services just to fund the tax offices investigations into everyone's tax affairs.

 

You don`t know that do you ? But even if it did cost the same, or even more, to prosecute a tax evader than the tax it would bring in from them, it`s still worth doing if it makes other dishonest tradesmen wonder whether it`s worth the risk. Same thing with many police prosecutions. My own personal bugbear being noisy exhausts*, start prosecuting them and the word would get out.

 

* This is a bad example actually, because the fines would actually pay for the prosecutions, but you know what I mean.

 

---------- Post added 07-11-2016 at 13:36 ----------

 

Read the links this sort of thing is covered in there, vast majority of the work done via computer, I'm sure it's not hard to find a wall that needs plastering.

 

Yes to do it for everyone would require many more officers, but the more you do it, the more people would think twice before doing it.

 

Exactly.......

[tinfoilhat]

Well, as far as I can see, we don't prosecute many people at all for tax evasion. We're jailing a higher proportion but that's it. I think penny is safe.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/5d58f0e2-0788-11e5-a58f-00144feabdc0