Yes I know it's none of my business but that does nike mean I can't still be livid and think less of my friends!

[fudgywudgy]

Sat having a coffee with two close friends and the conversation switches to money, I mention things are better now I work pt as I get paid middle of month so it "tops up" our bank account until dh gets paid.

Turns out they both feel the same about there tax credits as they both get paid start of the month when there dh's do.

Turns out they both shave thousands of p60's to claim more money!

Seemingly it's easy and everyone does it!!

Ffs how the hell is this possible? I would imagine what they get is a drop in the ocean to the millions that must be claimed everyyear by people who are not entitled.

Is this not the obvious solution to saving the government money, either employ people to check tax credit claims againsed p60s or scrap tax credits and just lower how much we pay tax?

I agree it's none of my business but I am still pissed off.

Nike in the title was supposed to be "not", bit obvious I thought.

YABVVVU to expect people to guess at your meaning by simply inserting the correct initial letter.
If it were that obvious, it would have caught on by nike.

Since when have you had to send your P60 off? I've never had to. I ring and tell them the figure. But they do random checks, so your friends could easily get caught out.

You don't have to send forms off.

I have claimed for years and have never had to send proof of earnings to them.

I thought tax credtis were paid weekly?

sniff sniff what is that smell

Tax credits are now being cut off at £18000 household income with some exceptions of £26000. what you claim your friends are doing is fraud.

have they got a goat?

How long have they been doing it because surely the tax office will catch up with them pretty easily - tax credits are administered by the Revenue and Excise (or whatever they're called now) who are the same people your employer sends your P60 to at the end of the tax year. Or do they not realise the tax office get a copy of your P60 directly from your employer?

I get my tax credits monthly can you get it weekly ?? they will get caught eventually and the tax do not mess about can be prison

I have been paid both weekly and monthly over the years.

I just can't believe that it is so easy to claim extra money just by saying over the phone what your income is.

I have no idea if you have to send proof if you renew your claim through the post as I have not done this.

Benefit scrounging fraud!!

imnot, do you? I'm out of touch.

I've never had to send off p60s and I am the one who deals with tax return, tax credits etc
However I am too scared of HMRC to lie to them!
Maybe next year I will shave my p60 in my nikes to try and save money

Quick question, do you actually have to shave it or will veet work just as well?

If this is true your friends are idiots. P60s are returned to the tax office and are very easily checked. They will get caught hopefully for them it's sooner rather than later. The longer it goes on the bigger the amount they will have to reimburse. Are people really so stupud as to lie to revenue when they have the information right there and can check at anytime.
If they are self employed IRS even more stupid as if they find you lying about one thing they will flag you for a full scale audit on everything.

IRS = it's. Since the grammar police are out.

"But they will be caught out eventually because the IR do random checks on claims all the time" - a quick google comes up with many people panicking on other forums (fora?) when they have been selected for a routine check after lying on the claim. In fact I'm guessing that they go through a data matching exercise occasionally which flags those where the data they hold is markedly different to what was claimed for.

I thought nike = like

I don't see how people can say it's none of your business when someone is cheating the system.
As someone said on TV the other day "Some people think that stealing from everyone equals not stealing from anyone." That is not the case and I think people need to be made aware of it, whether your friends or not.

in all seriousness, whether this is the OPs business or not, or even if what she is saying is indeed what her friends are doing, the thing I don't understand about tax credits is that you pay your tax to HMRC, and you get your tax credits from HMRC, so why the hell can the HMRC not just look at your earnings and decide if you are entitled or not. Makes no sense to me that I have to tell them what our earnings are when we are both PAYE employees and they already have that information on a computer somewhere.

Sorry, went off on one there, but, y'know, joined up thinking and all that. Can see how its different for self employed, but I'd imagine that most people are employees rather than self employed.....

I actually know a good few self employed people who don't declare their full earnings either, so I'd say its not that unusual. But what can you do? You can be purple with rage all you want, but they'll still do it. They might get caught, but most people don't. If it really upsets you then report them. If it doesn't, then forget about it.

just get them to buy lunch with all their extra cash

OP isn't actually wrong, it is pretty easy to defraud tax credits, it isn't cost effective to check every P60, childcare claim and whatnot so they do random checks. I had my nursery fees checked once, it was a right faff because my stupid nursery gave completely wrong figures

If they do check and find errors they will claw it back plus 30% penalty for the first time, more for any further offences plus potential prosecution. Hardly worth the risk!

Nike is one of the most commonly portrayed figures on Greek coins.

really what he God of

Nike is the goddess of strength, speed, and victory. The Nike sportswear brand is named after her.

Reporting them won't make much if a difference though, if it's really so easy to claim extra money their must be loads of people doing it.