...to report friend to hmrc

[HMRCorNot]

I have name changed for this

Close friend has at least 3 rental properties in prime locations. She Has been receiving rental income for over 10 years. Amounting to 6 figures(incl any mortgage amounts) Never declared.

She is In highest tax bracket so will be selecting no in drop down box for rental income on tax return which starts blank and then has two options yes or no - so no excuse to “forget” or not know.

I am also landlord and high earner so no jealousy. I find it immoral and unfair let alone illegal. She is surprised I declare!

Would IBU to report?

Can this be traced to me?

Can’t get comfortable either way.

Scared of reporting but feel ill that she feels she should be exempt from paying.

Wwyd? Aibu?

And what exactly would you get out of getting your friend into trouble?

Why do you think OP would expect to get something personal out of reporting a tax evasion? Are we supposed to report criminal activity because it gives us immediate personal benefits?

GET A LIFE! life is hard enough as it is.

Well, that was clearly the most intelligent contribution to the discussion so far. And what would you say to people whose lives have been made quite a bit harder because important council services have been restricted or cut for lack of funds?

Funds which would be much healthier if people raking in six figures from owning multiple homes actually paid the money they fucking owe?

I'm just stunned at some of the responses on here. I can only assume that all these 'ner ner tattletale' people have never had to use the NHS, or disability services, or libraries, or schools, or local roads, or parks, or benefits, or anything. Good for them.

But most of us mere mortals do need to use those services. More importantly, a hell of a lot of vulnerable people - children, the elderly, the disabled, lone parents - do need them. Tax evasion is stealing from these people, however you try to slime your way around it.

GET A LIFE! life is hard enough as it is.

Life would become harder still if even more people committed fraud by not paying income tax. We'd be waving goodbye to so many valuable, crucial services.

There seems to be a warped moral compass mentality for some where friends are concerned. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone who has no qualms about committing fraud.

@PoorYorick

Actually, we did!

I’m glad to come back on this thread and see some common sense, like from PoorYorick. Tax evasion is criminal. It’s theft. It’s stealing from the pockets and budgets of all the services we need the most. Appalling behaviour. And accepting it, even applauding it is almost as bad.

I wonder how many saying it would be wrong to report are on the fiddle themselves so are trying to defend their own position.

BMW6

When I lived In the UK I didn’t do anything illigal but I certainly made sure I paid the minimum requirement.

I certainly made sure I paid the minimum requirement.

But this person is not paying "the minimum requirement". They are deliberately paying less than that.

Wow, well done Kursk. Given that there's nothing you can't do, perhaps you could find a way to keep our local hospital, library and disability bus running when nobody pays anything into the public purse. Presumably you can run them all single handedly?

And you may have paid the minimum amount in tax, but OP's friend is raking in six figures (from multiple rental properties, which is yet another issue of mine, but I'll leave it aside for now) and paying NOTHING. I'll never understand the mindset that thinks tax is theft, but THAT isn't.

Cherrycokewinning

*therewasababoon you’re mixing up tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax avoidance is entirely legal(

Please don't patronise me Cherrycoke

I'm absolutely not mixing them up. Try reading what I wrote which was a response to someone suggesting that using an ISA was tax avoidance. An ISA is not tax avoidance because that is a lawful tax relief.

Tax avoidance is legal in the sense that it is on the face of it permitted by tax relief law but it uses tax relief law in a way that although it complies with the law on the face of it it was not intended by the legislators to be used that way. An ISA is not tax avoidance because it is an intended tax relief for people taking out an ISA.

Tax evasion is illegal because it is operating wholly outside the law - eg. not declaring income or fraud.

I posted that before you posted your clarification saying you’d mixed them up so not sure why you feel the need to post a further clarification

you posted your clarification saying you’d mixed them up

I did no such thing. I had a typo in my first line that I corrected. If you actually read the post it was clear that I hadn't mixed them up.

You have a very unpleasant tone; extremely patronising. "Mixed them up". Ha!

I don't think I would be able to report a friend but I would be heavily advising her that she needs to declare it and you don't want to hear another word about it if she decides not to.

I don't know how people like that live though, I couldn't cope with the constant worry.

Report - this is tax evasion and thus theft from the State.

The fine for deliberate tax evasion is 3 x tax due plus possible prison.

The fact her tax avoidance will probably run into 6 figures means I hope she like porridge. A local landlord who evaded about £150k tax (CGT) got over 2 years in prison.

www.ftadviser.com/regulation/2017/08/14/landlord-jailed-over-capital-gains-tax-bill/

Do you actually know this or are you just guessing she doesn't pay ? If she has a clever accountant you can write off lots of things so you pay less tax and sometimes little or nothing . I wouldn't report my friend
because I wouldn't be a friend but I would tell her to declare the income .

It does not matter if the OP is guessing

she should fill out the form and let HMRC carry out the appropriate investigations

What have you decided to do OP?