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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to report somebody for not paying tax?

155 replies

PramInspector · 07/02/2009 19:07

I'm really not sure about this one and would really appreciate some views as it is a bit of a moral dilemma which I just don't have the answer to.

I know someone (a guy) who runs his own business and who has not been declaring the large majority of his earnings (and thus not paying tax on them) for many years.

Now on the one hand, I think it is not my business to judge. On the other hand, I think this is clearly a crime which we are all paying for.

Why on earth should he get away with it? And why on earth should it be seen as any different to nicking somebody's handbag (which most people wouldn't hesitate to report and probably involves a lot less money)?

The other thing that makes this decision harder is that this guy has recently left his partner & 3 children, and I am not sure what impact it could have on them if this tax fraud was reported.

So what would you guys do?

OP posts:
Desiderata · 07/02/2009 21:24

No, VAT is just an extra means to screw money from the people.

That should also be abolished.

The thing is that if people have more money in their pocket, because it's not been screwed by the government, they will be more inclined to support the less well advantaged in society.

History supports this fact. People resent giving money to faceless beurocracy. They don't resent giving money to people in need. The Victorians were an example of that, despite the stereotype.

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 21:27

Rich people don't always spend more. Many very rich people live pretty frugally - that is how they get rich in the first place.

Most 40% tax payers are in pretty normal houses with pretty normal eating habits and purchases.

They're not all showy premiership footballer types.

I think it's wrong to assume that rich people spend much more money.

In fact as a proportion of income many less well off people spend much more money on "luxuries".

Desiderata · 07/02/2009 21:28

.. and you're wrong, toddle. The rich take far more from us than the poor.

The bankers still get their bonus, despite generating a disaster that even an idiot could have forseen seven years ago.

Poppycake · 07/02/2009 21:29

can I just add to the desi/tumtum debate - VAT fraud is not at all uncommon. A tax on purchases doesn't solve that problem.

And I would shop him on the anonymous line. Tax dodgers are stealing from all of us (and all our children).

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 21:30

I'm confused.

Isn't VAT a purchase tex?

If not, what exactly do you mean by a purchase tax?

Desiderata · 07/02/2009 21:31

Ummm, and that's a fact, hey?

Based on what, kid?

Because all the rich people I know wouldn't think twice about paying £100 for a pair of jeans, or £5,000 for a kitchen makeover.

Most of the rich people I know are builders, mind you. The ones who take cash ...

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 21:34

Well I know lots of 40% people and (like everyone else) some live modestly and some spend a lot.

None of them go around in gucci perfume and £100 jeans.

Or are you thinking of "rich" as earning more than the amount that puts you in the 40% bracket?

hf128219 · 07/02/2009 21:41

Well Desi if most of the rich people you know are builders you must live a very sheltered life!

VAT is a purchase tax - of course it is. If you use or consume a good or service in the UK it is subject to VAT - apart from zero-rated or exempt supplies.

MrsGrahamBell · 07/02/2009 21:43

You can report it, and feel virtuous, but the tax authorities will do zilch about it. A frind did that, and three years later the guy is still merrily flouitng it. They are jobsworth civil servants, and are NOT going to bust a gut to actually do their job - they are civil servants, remember, stick to their 9-5.

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 21:47

Where wealthier people spend their money (IME) is:

Housing
Private education
Holidays

Will these things have the purchase tax on them as well? If so that's getting onto being a different sort of tax altogether, and presumably would encompass a lot more things.

FWIW the builders I know certainly don't go around in Gucci perfume. And neither do their wives.

hf128219 · 07/02/2009 21:48

Absolute bollocks. Each case will be judged on its own merits.

KerryMumbles · 07/02/2009 21:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 21:51

At least they pay their taxes though mrsbell

And I suspect that may be hf's field...

ItsallaboutMEMEME · 07/02/2009 21:52

Since when does wearing Guicci perfume merit being a wealthy bastard?

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 21:57

Ah MEMEME, looks like you'll be the one paying for my pension in my old age then

I'm not sure Desi has thought this one through...

ItsallaboutMEMEME · 07/02/2009 22:00

Regarding builders, Guicci and £100 jeans,

you obviously haven't visited Essex tumtum.

hf128219 · 07/02/2009 22:02

Who's Guicci?

ItsallaboutMEMEME · 07/02/2009 22:05

It's a word I use when trying to spell Gucci

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 22:05

I have categorically never met a builder who wore Gucci perfume

And I wasn't aware that Gucci and £100 jeans were restricted entirely to the self-employed community down Essex way. IME they are pretty common in my Essex friends irrespective of occupation!

PS hf Guicci is what the knock-off perfumes are called on the market to get round trading standards...

ItsallaboutMEMEME · 07/02/2009 22:10

Thats right, pretty common, thats why I didn't understand why Gucci was being used as an example of loadsamoney???

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 22:12

No idea.

Desi has gone away now though so maybe we'll never find out..

Shame I was trying to work out how much everything would cost if all the money to run the country had to be raised from things we bought in shops.

hf128219 · 07/02/2009 22:13

Well not so much Gucci as an example of wealth - more Lewis Vuitton, Christina Dior and Kloe in my neck of the woods.

Back to the original OP - just report the tosser and see if HMRC do anything. He would never have a clue it was the OP - it would just be a routine visit.

tumtumtetum · 07/02/2009 22:18

People who are wealthy just as often look (and smell) very ordinary!

Not everyone with money goes around behaving like a footballer/footballers wife.

How random...

Yes OP shop him.

Divineintervention · 07/02/2009 22:22

I know people, including my parents, who have been investigated. I also knew a taxman who implied he had targets and so if you inform the likelihood is he will be investgated. I know a contractor who recently got 'done', I don't know if anyone reported him and a few builders/plumbers around here have taken their names off of their vans...I can only assume.
When I think about the little old man freezing in his house with a teeny winter fuel allowance I think we have a responsibility to report people who do not pay tax.....

hf128219 · 07/02/2009 22:25

It's called the Shadow Economy - and people who don't pay tax take the pish out of us ordinary citizens who do.

Don't be the underdog!

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