Tax. AIBU to feel angry and hurt.

[Fairysnuff321]

I can't be sure about this as I didn't hear it directly, but....
We were discussing finances being tight and my firiend husband mentioned that my other friends husband boasted to him that they run their business totally off the books and pay NO Tax, NONE, nothing.
I feel sick, and hurt, as the wife of Tax free boasting man, was I thought a good friend.
I believe in taxation and would rather have less and live in a society that looks after the sick, the old, and educates they young. The idea they are swanning off on holiday, while everyone else is paying for their healthcare, education etc leaves me struggling to respect them at all.
As it is second hand info I can't be sure .... but how the hell do I bring this up? If I don't it'll poison how I feel anyway.
I feel devastated.

Btw I've not given full circumstances, so can't and won't fully explain why it's made me so angry and yes, hurt. So feel free to keep judgey replies about impact on my feelings to yourselves if tempted 😘

Sorry, no idea meshletter...

Your friend's husband told you that your other friend's idiot husband was boasting and told him a thing.

Well in that case you should definitely ignore your actual conversations with the actual people involved and assume your friend is a liar and a cheat.

If you mention it to your friend in the context of hurt, anger, devastation, your friendship will definitely be poisoned.

Tbh, I would be saying to my friend "Holy god, have you heard the gossip going round about you! I tried to shut it down but I don't know if it worked."

Kind of tricky though if you didn't shut it down and got into gossip frenzy instead.

Which I didn't rabbit.
I discussed with no one else, apart fro here anonymously, keeping details out of it so not identifying.
I'm not ignoring conversations with the people involved, I haven't brought it up yet. Kind of tricky, so having a think and talking to you weirdos 😜

Considering letting her know what her oh has been telling people. I'm worried about her as well as possibly pissed off. Gives her a chance to correct misinformation if it it, and sort out oh mouth.

You do realise it could have been bravado and false bragging from the supposedly dodgy tax dodger!

Came here as I wanted to talk it through beforehand. Not used this before with an issue. Thanks for input.

Whathaveilost I do indeed.

Someone I know who runs their own business felt guilty when they put their iPhone on the company.

They're bad people

I understand why you feel that way. I would feel the same. We all need to pay our fair share for society to function.

I can also confirm as SuburbanCrofter says, it is not true to say that self-employed people pay little tax.

Thanks Antihop

fairy I meant to add to my comment about the bravado but got distracted.

We had an acquaintance who we went out with as a group of friends. He was always mouthing off about tax dodges,what he doesn't pay etc etc.
Turned out to be rubbish. He wanted to appear like Jack the Lad and getting one over the system. ( we found out for sure because someone else worked for him and they had a falling out. Told us it was all hot air and if there had been any truth in the claims would have reported the fella himself!)

mesh there are pro's & con's to becoming a contractor as others have said. My DH was staff and earning around 40k, all his colleagues were contractors earning over 70k doing the same job. He switched to contracting. He now earns a good wage and does claim a lower salary and take the rest a dividends, he does still pay tax though and vat etc which adds up to quite a bit. We don't get any tax credits or benefits etc, however maybe we could? I just haven't claimed as our actual income is too high.

However he now has no job security (1-2 month contracts), no sick or holiday pay and he'll not get any paternity pay when DC is born in the summer.

Re contracting - we actually looked into this at one time but were advised by accountants that if you were working for the same company all (or even most of ) the time, then technically you were not able to claim to be self employed as you were in effect employed by them and therefore had to go through PAYE system. This however was a few years ago so maybe it's different now?

That's the reason my DH had to leave his previous position ifonly - accountant said as he was doing the same job hmrc would flag and investigate, which could lead to him having to back pay ££££ in taxes. His accountant helpfully didn't tell him this until he'd been contracting there a year though 🙄. However DH's colleagues had been doing there same contracting job for years without issue.

Thanks all, I really need a place to vent how I felt, really helped me clear my head.
Whathaveilost (sorry can see how to put in bold?) looks like it is bravado, Yippee!
I let friend know what oh had been saying, and all is clear.
Thanks

Look them up on Companies House and you can see their annual reports and their yearly statements. If they are not there, consider reporting to HMRC?

user
Companies House only works if they are a company.
Some businesses are partnerships or sole traders and the accounts are private

the Middleton family business is a partnership so they have always been able to hide how much they make and how much they transferred to their kids