buying a house....

[feral chile]

Read back nightcrawlers original posts does he come across as someone who really has a strong grip of his tax affairs and a strong understanding of the tax system ? You can get fined and interest payments pending if you mess up your tax affairs, if nothing else an accountant will ensure he files his returns correctly.. What's the going ate for that ? £50 ? make sure he is claiming all the expenses he is entitled to...

I don't deny people can do it themselves,.. But get it wrong and it hurts...A bit of money to your accountant CAN reduce your tax bill AND save you hassle...

You think it's not worth it but I am talking facts and calling my comments inappropriate... Rubbish...

[lost]

Noone's arguing the legality. Indulging in tax avoidance is immoral. very different argument.

Edited October 16, 2011 by lost

[kaosmark2]

I wouldnt go that far, everybody does it to some aspect... you've never say bought duty free at an airport, or put money in an ISA or pension?

[lost]

And everyone steals music occassionally, everyone leaves electronics on needlessly, everyone buys food they throw away. I'm not saying every little incident should be decried as an outrage, just that it's immoral behaviour that shouldn't be encouraged.

Edited October 16, 2011 by lost

[kaosmark2]

It's immoral not to ay more tax than you have to ? I wonder how many people on PAYE volunteer an extra 10% of their incomes to the tax man... Immoral bastards ?

[kaosmark2]

Look up BN66 and tell me that was fair

Or the incorrect tax codes...

Or the fact you phone them and no one answers....

[kaosmark2]

My point was sometimes it may not be immoral as I mentioned saving for a pension or maybe say having your car converted to run on LPG? It was quite a sweeping statement. Some of these favourable tax rates/breaks exist to encourage good behaviour.

[feral chile]

Look up BN66 and tell me that was fair

Or the incorrect tax codes...

Or the fact you phone them and no one answers....

[feral chile]

Oh, I wasn't being absolutist, although yeah, my comment did come across as such. There are good reasons for it (admittedly not often IMO), I'm more arguing against the idea of the taxman being some evil overlord that you should try and avoid. Tax is a good thing, and should be encouraged to be paid.

[feral chile]

So is using an ISA bad?

So is paying money into a pension bad?

Is caliming expenses bad?

That's all tax avoidance... And it's totally legal... Yet you agreeing it's immoral ?

So are you saying we should be subjecting 100% of our gross income to tax?

[feral chile]

Can you give an example of avoidance you disagree with ? For clarity..,.

[Katster]

Sorry are people talking about hmrc and describing them as helpful? Fuck that!

I have had an ongoing two year battle with them about my apparent under payment in tax for the years 07-08, 08-09 and 09-10. Because did you know they are currently working at around two years behind and their post all gets put in a room in bags before they get round to dealing with it?! What kind of company works like that?! They never answer the phone and when they reply in writing it's a standard letter which ignores any questions you may have asked in ways to resolve such an important matter. I am still waiting to receive a phonecall back from 'sarah's' manager with regards to whether they would be able to chase my previous employers for the underpayment in tax since it appears the fault was on their part not mine and through all of this I have also funnily enough received a cheque for £100 for my now apparent over payment of tax at my new place. I haven't cashed it. I will be sending it them back when ever they start demanding the £2,500 they are adamant I owe...well, it would be a start to the payments at least!

[eFestivals]

You can get fined and interest payments pending if you mess up your tax affairs, if nothing else an accountant will ensure he files his returns correctly.. What's the going ate for that ? £50 ? make sure he is claiming all the expenses he is entitled to...

1. no accountant will give a greater guarantee over the quality of his advice than the tax office themselves will give. So what benefit is there really with an accountant for tax affairs this simple?

2. a "going rate" from an accountant of £50? PMSL. For anything worthwhile from an accountant you're talking £400 minimum - £400 nightcrawler doesn't need to spend.

[eFestivals]

It's immoral not to ay more tax than you have to ? I wonder how many people on PAYE volunteer an extra 10% of their incomes to the tax man... Immoral bastards ?

And I wonder how many people on PAYE are in the position to say "oh, that bit of money shouldn't be taxed, so my tax bill is lower now".

Oh, the answer is "none at all".

[eFestivals]

Do you mean because it was applied retrospectively?

That's not true - it's a lie put out by those who wish to shirk their tax responsibilities.

Check the actual history of the case, and you'll see that this supposed retrospective taxing had about 10 years pre-warning that they'd be hit for that tax.

[abdoujaparov]

And I wonder how many people on PAYE are in the position to say "oh, that bit of money shouldn't be taxed, so my tax bill is lower now".

Oh, the answer is "none at all".

[eFestivals]

How many people on PAYE pay for there own business expenses etc etc etc...

pmsl - if it's just a matter of turnover minus business expenses then no one needs an accountant.

[eFestivals]

My own accountant charges £75 for sorting out your tax return... Obviously the more you want the more they charge...

At £75 you must have extremely simple tax affairs that require and contain no tax avoidance advise, and have no need at all for that accountant.

There's no way on earth that any decent accountant would be giving you tax minimisation advice at that price. The whole bleeding point for their existence is to save their clients more money in tax than the cost of their services, and £75 wouldn't even cover the liability insurance per-client for an accountant.

[kaosmark2]

I never said they would do tons of tax avoidance for £75 ? I said they will sort your tax return....

[eFestivals]

A tax return that is really simple.

so simple in fact that on occasions before now I've done them in less than 10 seconds while a HMRC official has been stood on my doorstep waiting for them to be put into his or her hand.

Which reminds me, I've got about ten days left to do this year's. Those two boxes I have to fill in with a number in each one takes me weeks to do.

Next up, we'll have the anti-tax morons bleating on about how spending 20 seconds doing their VAT return is making their business overwhelmed by bureaucratic paperwork. Oh, hang on...

[kaosmark2]

so simple in fact that on occasions before now I've done them in less than 10 seconds while a HMRC official has been stood on my doorstep waiting for them to be put into his or her hand.

Which reminds me, I've got about ten days left to do this year's. Those two boxes I have to fill in with a number in each one takes me weeks to do.

Next up, we'll have the anti-tax morons bleating on about how spending 20 seconds doing their VAT return is making their business overwhelmed by bureaucratic paperwork. Oh, hang on...

[eFestivals]

Well if you don't keep proper track of your cash flow

... then a business owner has no idea of what impact doing a VAT return has on their business to complain about it.

I fucking hate The Taxpayers Alliance, who are not any alliance of tax payers but instead an alliance of people who object to paying any tax at all. Just look at the list of c**ts who fund them.

Edited October 17, 2011 by eFestivals

[kaosmark2]

... then a business owner has no idea of what impact doing a VAT return has on their business to complain about it.

I fucking hate The Taxpayers Alliance, who are not any alliance of tax payers but instead an alliance of people who object to paying any tax at all. Just look at the list of c**ts who fund them.

[kaosmark2]

I find the tax issues easy and straight forward...

[eFestivals]

I find the tax issues easy and straight forward... Millions don't...

yeah, you find them so easy and straighforwards that you have to waste £75 on an accountant who'd do nothing worthwhile at all for you for that amount.

As I say, you claim of paying just £75 wouldn't even cover their liability insurance per-customer. If you've really been paying just £75, then you have the only accountant in the world that's too incompetent to do his own books.