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Would you have the same feeling if the metaphor was closer to home. Making assumptions here, but say a friend that contracts and pays less tax due to it. They a

Would you have the same feeling if the metaphor was closer to home. Making assumptions here, but say a friend that contracts and pays less tax due to it. They are very successful but technically breaking a law or two, but everyone does it so who's the sucker?

simonbarker87 5y ago
I’ve already been in that situation and choose every time to pay the tax, keep things clean and straight forward. Our financial advisor used to poke fun at me and my business partner for how straight laced we were. In year 7 of the company we got pinged for a random HMRC PAYE audit, we passed (with a couple of minor infractions that we simply didnt realise about - like buying bacon sandwiches for your staff every Friday is actually taxable) but it was still pretty stressful. If we had done half the stuff people had suggested we do because “everyone does it” we would have had a much worse time in that audit. Yeh I have self employed friends and other directors who may or may not be as buttoned down as they should be and I’m sure they will be fine but I’m not wired that way and it’s treated me pretty well in life so far. I hear from many people that my opinion of them matters to them a lot, that they follow my lead, that they loved working for me, that they think “what would Simon do here?” which is worth way more to me than skirting some rules for an advantage at the cost of my credibility, integrity and self respect.
- wallacoloo 5y ago
  > If we had done half the stuff people had suggested we do because “everyone does it” we would have had a much worse time in that audit. you have to mentally remove this paragraph from your story. the scenario is that there are zero repercussions for failing the audit. you might think that it’s irrelevant to you, but the fact you bring it up shows it had at least some impact on you. maybe not enough to impact your actions today, but there’s a large spectrum here where the difference between enforcement or no enforcement is significant enough to impact the behavior of a slightly different person or of your own behavior in a slightly different scenario.

simonbarker87 5y ago

I’ve already been in that situation and choose every time to pay the tax, keep things clean and straight forward. Our financial advisor used to poke fun at me and my business partner for how straight laced we were. In year 7 of the company we got pinged for a random HMRC PAYE audit, we passed (with a couple of minor infractions that we simply didnt realise about - like buying bacon sandwiches for your staff every Friday is actually taxable) but it was still pretty stressful. If we had done half the stuff people had suggested we do because “everyone does it” we would have had a much worse time in that audit. Yeh I have self employed friends and other directors who may or may not be as buttoned down as they should be and I’m sure they will be fine but I’m not wired that way and it’s treated me pretty well in life so far. I hear from many people that my opinion of them matters to them a lot, that they follow my lead, that they loved working for me, that they think “what would Simon do here?” which is worth way more to me than skirting some rules for an advantage at the cost of my credibility, integrity and self respect.

wallacoloo 5y ago
> If we had done half the stuff people had suggested we do because “everyone does it” we would have had a much worse time in that audit. you have to mentally remove this paragraph from your story. the scenario is that there are zero repercussions for failing the audit. you might think that it’s irrelevant to you, but the fact you bring it up shows it had at least some impact on you. maybe not enough to impact your actions today, but there’s a large spectrum here where the difference between enforcement or no enforcement is significant enough to impact the behavior of a slightly different person or of your own behavior in a slightly different scenario.