4 ms·

>The final bill came to about fifty quid, I'm thinking you weren't really who they wanted to target anyway.

marcus_holmes 7y ago
indeed :) But still a good lesson.
nikanj 7y ago
Sometimes it feels like the taxman is very keen on targeting Joe Ordinary who saved fifty quid, and completely ignoring the billionaires who evaded tens of millions in taxes.
- VBprogrammer 7y ago
  At a guess this might not be far from the truth. For sub a few hundred pound almost no one would bother fighting it. Above a few hundred thousand almost everyone will. At best they'd have to expend a lot of time and money to get a fraction of the original amount back.
  - marcus_holmes 7y ago
    My wealthy great aunt paid an accountant to minimise her tax bill. She said it worked out around even, the costs of the accountant were about what she saved on the taxes, but she preferred paying the accountant than the government.
    - yrro 7y ago
      Of course, 20% of what she paid the accountant goes straight to the government in the form of VAT. Then, 20% of what's left goes again when the accountant spends any of it (ok, some thing are zero-rated [books] but on the other hand others have extra duties on top [fuel])... Then there's the accountant's own tax bill...
    - benj111 7y ago
      "but she preferred paying the accountant" Why? At the extreme, would she have preferred to pay 100% to accountants rather than the government? If everyone took that view, who would pay for the schools and roads etc? I suppose that wouldn't happen, the tax rate would be increased, so everyone's paying tax and a massive accountants bill, so really the rational move is to pay the tax.
      - markkanof 7y ago
        There are a lot of things that government spends taxes on that many of us don't agree with. Better to spend that money employing someone providing a useful service than contributing to fund things that you find immoral, such as fighting unjust wars.
        marcus_holmes 7y ago
        this. exactly. She'd lived through WWII, been bombed by the Luftwaffe, operated one of the first radar stations, and had firm opinions on governments.
- andrepd 7y ago
  Of course, who do you think pays the taxman? Who writes the laws or has power, influence, and money to shape them? It's not an accident, it's by design.
- tomatocracy 7y ago
  It might feel like that but fortunately it isn’t true. People and companies who earn above a certain amount get a ‘relationship manager’ at HMRC and also get classified as low/medium/high compliance risk by them. I think there are rules they consider ‘intended loopholes’ (like the fact that you can designate a different house your main residence every 9 months and effectively benefit from two primary residence allowances for CGT, or the ability to transfer assets between spouses tax free), many of which benefit richer people/larger companies more than poorer/smaller ones, and others they consider ‘unintended consequences’ which they do go after in a number of ways - all the way through to effectively retrospective changes to the law (like the Loan Charge).
- mercer 7y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181664

indeed :) But still a good lesson.

Sometimes it feels like the taxman is very keen on targeting Joe Ordinary who saved fifty quid, and completely ignoring the billionaires who evaded tens of millions in taxes.

VBprogrammer 7y ago
At a guess this might not be far from the truth. For sub a few hundred pound almost no one would bother fighting it. Above a few hundred thousand almost everyone will. At best they'd have to expend a lot of time and money to get a fraction of the original amount back.
- marcus_holmes 7y ago
  My wealthy great aunt paid an accountant to minimise her tax bill. She said it worked out around even, the costs of the accountant were about what she saved on the taxes, but she preferred paying the accountant than the government.
  - yrro 7y ago
    Of course, 20% of what she paid the accountant goes straight to the government in the form of VAT. Then, 20% of what's left goes again when the accountant spends any of it (ok, some thing are zero-rated [books] but on the other hand others have extra duties on top [fuel])... Then there's the accountant's own tax bill...
  - benj111 7y ago
    "but she preferred paying the accountant" Why? At the extreme, would she have preferred to pay 100% to accountants rather than the government? If everyone took that view, who would pay for the schools and roads etc? I suppose that wouldn't happen, the tax rate would be increased, so everyone's paying tax and a massive accountants bill, so really the rational move is to pay the tax.
    - markkanof 7y ago
      There are a lot of things that government spends taxes on that many of us don't agree with. Better to spend that money employing someone providing a useful service than contributing to fund things that you find immoral, such as fighting unjust wars.
      - marcus_holmes 7y ago
        this. exactly. She'd lived through WWII, been bombed by the Luftwaffe, operated one of the first radar stations, and had firm opinions on governments.
andrepd 7y ago
Of course, who do you think pays the taxman? Who writes the laws or has power, influence, and money to shape them? It's not an accident, it's by design.
tomatocracy 7y ago
It might feel like that but fortunately it isn’t true. People and companies who earn above a certain amount get a ‘relationship manager’ at HMRC and also get classified as low/medium/high compliance risk by them. I think there are rules they consider ‘intended loopholes’ (like the fact that you can designate a different house your main residence every 9 months and effectively benefit from two primary residence allowances for CGT, or the ability to transfer assets between spouses tax free), many of which benefit richer people/larger companies more than poorer/smaller ones, and others they consider ‘unintended consequences’ which they do go after in a number of ways - all the way through to effectively retrospective changes to the law (like the Loan Charge).
mercer 7y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181664