To report her for tax evasion?

[hooveringhamabeads]

I know of someone who is making around £1k a week, but hardly declares any of her income (she doesn't pay any tax at all so declaring less that £10k of it). She also claims tax credits.

I don't particularly like this person and am tempted to report her. Problem is, pretty much all the money she receives is in cash, so is there any way that the HMRC would actually be able to prove or disprove what she's earning?

[PovertyPain]

Id have more respect for you, OP, if you were upfront and admitted you want to report someone for tax evasion because you don't like them and want to sink them.

[butterfly56]

That's a hell of a lot of undeclared income, far too much imho to be getting away with paying tax.
I knew someone who did this kind of thing and ended up getting investigated by HRMC after she refused to pay her friend wages for work done. So the friend reported her to the HRMC.

[NewYorkthisXmas]

Is she a drug dealer?
Selling used underwear?
Selling stolen goods?

Does she sell something or offer a service?

[NewYorkthisXmas]

How does this person pay for anything? Or save for their pension?

[TheDuckSaysMoo]

I would report if you have a reasonable doubt.

Making a profit implies she is running a business. To be reasonably sure that means you must know: how she takes money out (salary v dividends); how much profit she invests back into the business; what her capital allowances and deferred tax positions look like etc. There's a lot to consider.

[BigApples]

Report her.

[LillyLollyLandy]

Report.

[Emmageddon]

So she's not a prostitute and she doesn't sell Forever Living or Scentsy candles...hmmm.

Does she look after adult babies?

[meltingmarshmallows]

Unless she's done this for a tax year and submitted a tax return which omits her undeclared income, she hasn't broken the law yet.

She could know she will be able to put her tax away later in the year, or expect a big payout and just be managing her money really poorly.

Tax evasion is not ok. But it would be messy to get involved. Let HMRC deal with it and don't get involved. If she is being as blatant as you say, you won't be the only person with this information.

[Emmageddon]

Oh yes, and report. I would. A third of my hard-earned money goes to the taxman, why should she get to keep all her income? If that makes me a mean-spirited tattletale, I don't care.

[user1495997773]

I agree with scrabbler3 and the others who say you should report it. Even if it is all cash HMRC will be able to look at other factors to compare her declared income which is low, with her lifestyle, eg, if she only earns £10K a year, how did she manage to accrue savings, pay a mortgage/rent, pay HP on a car/loans/credit cards etc. It doesn't matter what your motives may be, if she is breaking the law it should be reported.

[NewYorkthisXmas]

Can you just say what she does?

Noone gets "outed" on MN you're just being paranoid.

[Ceto]

Why do people say it's not OP's business? It's everyone's business if people are evading paying tax so the rest of us have to pay more.

[hooveringhamabeads]

It's quite a niche thing that she does so it would be outing. And no it's not looking after adult babies

[hooveringhamabeads]

Or a dominatrix, or anything remotely sexual.

[thingsthatgobumpinthenightouch]

I don't understand why anyone would say not to report it. Only on Mumsnet is it ok for people to get away with fraud!

[Fresh8008]

Anyone's feelings are irrelevant. She is stealing from us. Tax credits... what else, free prescriptions? NI contributions? Child Benefit? How many more benefits could she be claiming on a pretend £10,000 income? And that's before the tax she isn't paying is added in. I bet she is stealing 5 figures from us.

Where is this £52k in cash going. Most large purchases have to be made with cheque /cards. Does she have an expensive car, go on expensive holidays 3 times a year. HMRC can easily ascertain she is living beyond her declared means and start looking into where this money is coming from.

[RainbowsandUnicorns2]

I personally wouldn't get involved in bringing someone else down. If she has been making life tricky for your, then maybe best to stay well away from her?

[Emmageddon]

Damn, I wanted her to be working as an adult baby nanny.

[blankface]

Don't listen to app the nosey people who wants to know what she does and are trying to get you to answer a lot of seemingly unrelated questions so they can suddenly like Poirot deduce what it is, then out you for their own satisfaction. That's a side of MN I've seen before and don't like at all

Don't answer any more questions. Report her, anonymously if you like, if she's legit, she will have no problems, if not, then that's tough.

[NotMyPenguin]

It's possible that she's not paying tax because her PROFITS are under £10K -- e.g. she may be bringing in more money each week, but have significant costs. You really have no way of knowing. I just want to point out that this can be legitimate, despite how much she takes each week. It really depends on the business.

[BackieJerkhart]

Don't listen to app the nosey people who wants to know what she does and are trying to get you to answer a lot of seemingly unrelated questions so they can suddenly like Poirot deduce what it is, then out you for their own satisfaction

I don't want to know so I can out OP. I could just really do with a grand this week

[lljkk]

I hope you find a way to tell us what work she's doing, some day, OP.

If nothing else I wouldn't mind a job earning £1000 a week. heck, I'd even pay full tax on it :-).