Those bastards at HMRC

[weasel]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11077630/eBay-users-warned-to-declare-income-as-trader-is-jailed-for-tax-evasion.html


The phrase "you can **** right off" springs to mind. Not that I sell much on Evilbay.

 

[Frunkstar]

Think you summed that up perfectly Weaz, though with 500,000 transactions you can see how they caught up with the guy.

 

[weasel]

Absolutely, the guy in question was taking he piss and deserved to be done. It does say that they have sent out letters to people for as little as £100. That's ****ing stupid.

 

[sith-smith]

But then, what do you expect...they're money grabbing bastards! :twisted:

 

[Robstyley]

Don't even get me started with the Inland Rev! Motherfuckers. I tried to phone them about 10 times to sort out some tax affairs and never got through, ever! Kept on hold to then eventually be told - we cannot answer your call, goodbye. Sending me threatening letters etc but then dont answer the phone when I ring them to sort it out. They owe me about 1.5K in tax too! Seperate issue I know but they are a-holes :x

 

[steve obi wan]

How many times do you have to pay tax on your items !

Crazy , crazy

 

[weasel]

How many times do you have to pay tax on your items !

Ahhh come on, we all know the answer to that! It's as many ****ing times as they decide and they'll change the rules as they like.

 

[theforceuk]

It is annoying, but then again we are lucky to live in the UK. Compared to a lot of countries we have it easy. You only have to Google how many people have died from costruction work in Qatar or Ebola in West Africa and paying tax seems like a luxury.

Don't get me wrong I moan about tax as much as anyone, I'm not getting on my high horse or anything. Just saying.

 

[jedisearcher]

Haha I wouldn't worry too much guys, 716 convictions in 12 months sounds worrying but that's not just for ebay, that's nationally for every type of tax evasion. They probably prosecuted more members of Take That than they did Star Wars collectors.

The chances of anyone even being on their radar is absolutely tiny unless you're putting through a shedload of transactions every year. HMRC just don't have the manpower to go looking for anything other than the largest traders despite their scaremongering.

 

[_Lee_]

Another reason why i cant ****ing stand the royal family.

 

[Princess Raya]

Hold on a second, am I missing something here? I don't like paying taxes at the best of times, but I still want schools to educate kids, hospitals to cure the sick and the police to keep theiving bastards off the streets. If this guy's main source of income was trading on ebay, with a turnover of £1.4m, and didn't declare his income then lock him up I say! He's stealing from all of us.

I don't think this is an issue for someone buying and selling a few personal items, but might put off a few flippers and speculaters

 

[weasel]

Hold on a second, am I missing something here? I don't like paying taxes at the best of times, but I still want schools to educate kids, hospitals to cure the sick and the police to keep theiving bastards off the streets. If this guy's main source of income was trading on ebay, with a turnover of £1.4m, and didn't declare his income then lock him up I say! He's stealing from all of us.

Nope, no of us object to yer man being done. He deserves it, you're right.

I'm just worried some bellend at HMRC will look at my Ebay auctions and decide I should be paying tax on that. Send me a demand and then disappear into that wonderful world that HMRC have where no one can contact them and if you do get to speak to someone they don't know the answer to your question, they just refuse to 'engage brain' and steadfastly insist you have to pay it, or they don't understand. Either way you're left with a tax demand and a sore head after banging it off the wall for weeks on end.

 

[maxf]

They won't just send you a tax demand. It doesn't work like that. Worst case scenario is you will have to do a self assessment form - then if you lie on that they have you banged to rights.

You have to make over £11k profit from selling items to be over your personal gains allowance anyway... most people who aren't trading will fall well below this anyway.

 

[ODB]

Hold on a second, am I missing something here? I don't like paying taxes at the best of times, but I still want schools to educate kids, hospitals to cure the sick and the police to keep theiving bastards off the streets. If this guy's main source of income was trading on ebay, with a turnover of £1.4m, and didn't declare his income then lock him up I say! He's stealing from all of us.

Nope, no of us object to yer man being done. He deserves it, you're right.

I'm just worried some bellend at HMRC will look at my Ebay auctions and decide I should be paying tax on that. Send me a demand and then disappear into that wonderful world that HMRC have where no one can contact them and if you do get to speak to someone they don't know the answer to your question, they just refuse to 'engage brain' and steadfastly insist you have to pay it, or they don't understand. Either way you're left with a tax demand and a sore head after banging it off the wall for weeks on end.

I doubt HMRC will even bother will the small fry of people selling a few items it isn't worth their time and even the most incompetent inspector cannot issue a demand without first starting an investigation. If HMRC cannot police Director and corporate tax which are far more heavily regulated then there is no chance that they will be able to look at individuals on ebay.

 

[weasel]

I hope you're right. It shouldn't affect me anyway, I rarely use Ebay anymore.

 

[Princess Raya]

I'm just worried some bellend at HMRC will look at my Ebay auctions and decide I should be paying tax on that. Send me a demand and then disappear into that wonderful world that HMRC have where no one can contact them and if you do get to speak to someone they don't know the answer to your question, they just refuse to 'engage brain' and steadfastly insist you have to pay it, or they don't understand. Either way you're left with a tax demand and a sore head after banging it off the wall for weeks on end.

Furry muff. I can definitely sympathise with having to deal with large, faceless, incompetent organisations. (I hate you Virgin Media :evil: :x :twisted: ) Especially when they are as self righteous as HMRC.

So long as nobody makes more than £11k capital gains from buying and selling per annum, they have nothing to fear. Except, of course, the stress, headaches and sleepless nights from dealing with HMRC in the unlikely event they decide to haul you over the coals... :?

 

[jedisearcher]

Far more likely they get you on VAT. Ebay can easily provide them a total turnover for all sales and if it's over the VAT threshold then you've got an issue. The £1.5m turnover guy was comfortably over the £81k VAT threshold :lol:

CGT is much more difficult for them to establish what your gain is, and if that exceeds the CGT threshold, plus the fact that CGT is much more complicated than VAT anyway.

 

[theslider]

The guy in the article was actually knocking out dodgy pirate DVDs as well.