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Then you can have as many "customers" as you like and nobody can really tell how many you really might have had Note that, for this and related reasons, the IR
by patio11 11y ago
Then you can have as many "customers" as you like and nobody can really tell how many you really might have had
Note that, for this and related reasons, the IRS guides on examining car washes and laundromats (yes, these documents both exist and are publicly available) says to find their water bill from the business' books, look up the price of water in the area, Fermi estimate the amount of legitimate business happening, and compare with reported revenue. If a wash costs $1 and you use 250k washes worth of water but report $60k in gross receipts you're evading taxes; if you report $6 million in gross receipts you're laundering more than underwear.
(A technique with similar impact is "compare with a selection of similarly situated businesses in your files.")
- lifeisstillgood 11y agoThe U.K. Version of this was to count the number of tinfoil boxes purchased and delivered to the Chinese / Indian / Mexican takeaway and divide by the number of reported meals. While amusing it is one of those depressing things to realise that in a decade or two lying will become almost impossible to get away with. I suspect this will have an impact on human society
- gherkin0 11y agoCouldn't that be gamed pretty easily by buying the takeout boxes and then selling them again under the table to a legitimate business?
- mattmanser 11y agoBuying them and junking them would be far safer. Otherwise whoever you're selling them to will be investigated for money laundering and that could lead back to you.
- JupiterMoon 11y agoOr just buying them and throwing them away.
- lifeisstillgood 11y agoYeah, it was more the other way round - the restaurant would sell 100,000 takeaways, using 100,000 boxes, but only pay tax on 50,000. The inspector would see 100,000 boxes and ask, so where are either the extra 50,000 boxes or where is the cash