to not judge someone for 'massaging/fiddling' their taxes

[LaurieFairyCake]

and to actually think there will be a LOT more of this as cost of living and shit healthcare increases

Someone I know (builder in his early 60's) has had 3 operations in last 3 years - two hips/one knee (and needs the other knee done) - they have cost him £22,000 but of course he couldn't get an appointment for the first one (Covid) and the last 2 they said he'd have to wait 5-6 years!

He couldn't work unless he had them done - as it is he had to take off 8-14 weeks for each and they told him he'd be retired before he even had them done

They were (obviously) not getting any better as they're degenerative

If he hadn't had them done he'd have had to give up work and there would be no tax collected at all

The way I see it he will now pay tax for the next 6-10 years and frankly the government got a good deal

(In case anyone doesn't know how self employed tax payments work he essentially declared an income - say 30k as he was off work a lot and then deducted the cost of his surgery from that - and pay tax on the balance)

Although it appears logical to deduct the cost of private health care from self employed earnings, as far as I’m aware, HMRC wouldn’t allow this. I was self employed for over 30 years and only expenses directly related to the business are permissible.

I'd never judge someone for massaging their figures. For one progressive taxation is morally wrong, so in that basis alone. Secondly much of our tax money is misspent.