AIBU to report possible tax evasion?

[Taxevasionpredicament]

Name changed for this to keep it seperate to my other posting...

I know someone who is a social media influencer, and has a very vocal stance on how pitiful the self empoyed support in the uk has been. Which was one of her justifactions as to why she is currently in Dubai 'working'

She has posted about this, stating that included in her support calculation was the full 3 years of self employment, the first year of which she was working part time as a PT while studying at university.

However i know this to be totally untrue, as I was a PT client of hers, for at least 2 years, which ended about 3 years ago. So i know that shes been self employed a lot longer than 3 years, and that 3 years ago, she was doing a lot more than 1 or 2 days a week. For the period i was with her, she was seeing around 6 clients a day, mon-fri, at £35 an hour. As well as having an online training subscription service. Also for the whole time that i was involved she was never a uni student, and had dropped out a while before i met her. So the uni grant she says she was receiving 3 years ago would also have been fraudulent i imagine.

AIBU to want to report her? I agree that the self employed support has been lacking, but it grates a bit to have her complaining about how hard she has it, while sunning herself in Dubai, with a large amount of sponsorships, and a very profitable onlyfans account.

I suspect that for the length of time i was a client, most if not all that money was not being declared. All clients either paid cash or transferred money into her personal account so no obvious business paper trail.

But not sure whether to just stay out of it and let her be one of the millions that gets away with this sort of thing. AIBU to want to report?

You cant know what was going on for definite behind closed doors and tbh I would leave it. It would annoy me to if I was 100% certain they were in the wrong

Nope - I wouldn't.

You don't know the facts.
Self employed people don't have to have a separate business account so the transfers to a personal account are relevant and could be taken into account by HMRC.
But you know nothing of what she's actually declared.
You can try reporting her.
The deadbeat DJ I know who was working and claiming benefits never got any bother from HMRC or benefits (or CMS) despite being reported more than once.
HMRC don't care really, they go after easy targets.

Well i know 100% that at least a year before she is claiming she went self employed, she was working as a PT a lot more than 1-2 days a week, and know 100% that she had already dropped out of uni. Which are two things she is claiming.

Had a look through the info and dates i have, and i started as a client at the start of 2016, so at least a year before she is claiming she went self employed. I have my own social media paper trail (not as many followers as her though 😂) and bank records of money paid to back this up, along with emails etc.

The difference of 1-2 days a week vs 5 days a week makes a massive difference. At £35 an hour, with minimum 3 clients a day, it works out at £210 a day. So if you take her claim of 1-2 days, then thats £420 a week, and work it out at roughly 40 weeks working in a year as a low estimate, thats £16800 annual income.

But if you take it as 5 days a week, it calculates at £42000. Which is a big difference.

But i suppose what she is claiming on social media might not be what shes actually declared.

Do you really dislike this person or something?

You are far too invested in this.

No, I would stay out of it.

If you have solid evidence and dates that are verifiable, then please do. Someone who is condoning all the ill-treatment of women that happens in Dubai by choosing to work there does not deserve leniency or sympathy.

Why are you so hellbent on reporting her? It seems like you have a real disliking towards her

I’d personally mind my own business

There’s huge companies like Apple etc that pay barely any tax. Leave her alone and focus on yourself

There are no uni grants - only loans. You don’t know what taxes she may or may not have paid. I don’t see how you can report her.

Why are you so invested OP? Not a good look.

What she is claiming on social media and what she is actually claiming to HMRC could be very different. Why on earth are you this invested? You must really despise this person for some reason.

OP I don't blame you
.if you know for SURE I'd report her. Fed up with people pleading poor mouth when they're actually rorting the system

That money could help those who truly need benefits

Why is your impression of PT 1-2 days a week? That's not the definition of PT it's anything less then the ft equivalent. It's only for claiming certain benefits that specify 16 hours.

You have zero proof of anything and tbh you just sound a bit spiteful of them being in Dubai and being successful.

The calculation is done over the last three years. That doesn't mean she wasn't paying tax on her freelance work prior to that, just that it's irrelevant in the context of claiming SSIS.

A few years ago a knew a man who worked for HMRC and they got anonymous reports about people not paying all their tax all the time. It might have changed since then and with covid but they looked into the accusations and took it from there.

You certainly won't be the only person sending in reports, I don't quite understand what the issue is but if you have strong proof of tax evasion then I don't think it's unreasonable to let HMRC investigate and decide.

@Scottishskifun

Why is your impression of PT 1-2 days a week? That's not the definition of PT it's anything less then the ft equivalent. It's only for claiming certain benefits that specify 16 hours.

You have zero proof of anything and tbh you just sound a bit spiteful of them being in Dubai and being successful.

No wonder I don't understand, I thought PT meant she was a personal trainer

@amusedtodeath1

The calculation is done over the last three years. That doesn't mean she wasn't paying tax on her freelance work prior to that, just that it's irrelevant in the context of claiming SSIS.

This. It was only the 3 years ended 2019/20 that are relevant for SEISS. And it is only the declared income which is relevant, so if she didn't declare her income she can't claim SEISS in relation to it.

@FlyingBurrito haha oops I read it as part time (hence around studying) not enough coffee and a toddlers bad night! 😂

Nothing will come of it even if you do. I reported someone for being a company director while being personally bankrupt (they liquidated another company and also then filed for bankruptcy themselves). Nothing came of it. They sat as a director throughout their bankruptcy, and that company is still trading today. It takes an awful lot to get HMRC to do anything proactive. And it has to be easy for them to prove. If they have any legwork, they'll only do it if they stand to recoup millions.

It's so boring at the moment just do it to spice up your day 😂🙈

No wonder I don't understand, I thought PT meant she was a personal trainer

I think it does mean personal trainer. But it's all confusing!

I mean you could if you really wanted to but having worked in the financial sector, our firm has reported probably over 100 people for this kind of thing over many years to HMRC, and not one has ever been investigated.

HMRC aren’t interested, they only want to go after large companies where it’s extremely easy to get money from them for no work.

It would be a complete waste of time.

I think it would be very hard to prove, if lot of her clients paid cash.

My parents were investigated for tax evasion and in the end they had to pay an exta couple of thousand, they suspected a business rival of reporting them but it didn't amount to much in the long run.

I just want to know who it is 🤣