Tax Evasion

[anything I don't mind]

I say either allow me to deduct expenses on my payee income tax or it is an income tax on my wage. Is it an income tax or a wage tax? Why am i unable to file tax deductible expenses unless I am a business?

 

[dowie]

I say either allow me to deduct expenses on my payee income tax or it is an income tax on my wage. Is it an income tax or a wage tax? Why am i unable to file tax deductible expenses unless I am a business?

?

you can claim back some:

http://www.listentotaxman.com/2014/news/156.html

Mileage. If the mileage allowance that your employer pays you is less than the HMRC rate, you are able to claim the balance. The first 10,000 business miles, according to HMRC, can be claimed at a rate of 45p per mile. Over 10,000 miles the allowable HMRC rate drops to 25p per mile. If you are paid less than these rates by your employer, you can claim the difference on your self assessment return. More detailed information is available from HMRC.

Working from home. If you are required to work from home by your employer or have a home working agreement in place with them, you are entitled to claim a home working allowance. This is to help with increased household costs because of business use, such as electricity, gas, phone. The amount you can claim at present is £4 a week. For more info see our article on the Working from Home Allowance.

Charitable contributions. If you are a higher rate taxpayer and have made gift aided charitable donations, you can claim tax relief on them. For example, if you donated £200 to charity, the total donation would be £250, so you can claim back £50 if you pay tax at 40%. HMRC have more information on the relief.

Clothing and Tools.If you work in certain industries, such as the building/ metal working industries, you may have to use uniforms, specialist or protective clothing, gloves, etc. You can claim tax relief on the maintenance/ cleaning/ replacement of these items, but you can't claim for the initial cost of buying the items. That is, of course, as long as your employer does not already compensate you for these costs. To find out more about this relief you will need to contact HMRC.

Professional fees and subscriptions. You can claim tax relief on professional fees, membership fees, subscriptions, etc. if they are necessary or beneficial for your work. See HMRC for more info. To be entitled to the relief the organisation subscribed to must be on the HMRC approved list.

Capital Allowances. If you have to buy equipment for work, that your employer does not pay for, you may be able to claim capital allowance tax relief. The example HMRC gives is of a filing cabinet purchased by an employee for work, but not paid for by the employer. You can not claim relief for motor vehicles. These are dealt with on a different part of your tax return. See HMRC for more on capital allowances.

 

[Angilion]

Err, no. If your evading tax by disguising it as avoidance, it still isn't legal, just HMRC might not be able to get sufficient evidence to convict you. Hiding a body doesn't mean you aren't a murderer!

It would if the definition of murder includes the body being found. That's the kind of distinction being made when it comes to non-payment of taxes. It's not at all like the distinction between someone being killed or not. Evasion and avoidance have the same meaning and refer to the same action. The sole difference is whether or not your accountant can massage it into a close enough fit into the legal cracks in complicated international tax laws and the varying interpretations of fine details within them.

As you say yourself:

Yeah but the legal definition is different.

 

[Sudden]

It would if the definition of murder includes the body being found. That's the kind of distinction being made when it comes to non-payment of taxes. It's not at all like the distinction between someone being killed or not. Evasion and avoidance have the same meaning and refer to the same action. The sole difference is whether or not your accountant can massage it into a close enough fit into the legal cracks in complicated international tax laws and the varying interpretations of fine details within them.

As you say yourself:

Correct me if i'm wrong...but the legal definition is important, no? Since that's what laws are based on...

 

[SlyReaper]

My thinking is, everyone has a right to minimise their tax exposure as far as the law allows. Corporations, particularly publicly owned companies, have a duty to their shareholders to maximise profits, and that means paying as little tax as they can get away with. Their duty is to their shareholders, not to the taxpayer.

The problem is that the tax system is pretty much the definition of kafkaesque, and there are all these loopholes that are only available to people with good accountants. That's the issue. If you had an opportunity to legally increase your take-home pay by exploiting a tax loophole, almost anyone would do it.

TL;DR - hate the game, not the player.

 

[Westyfield2]

their fair share.

Fairness is subjective.

An argument against the current tax system can be that "Just because someone has earned more, why should they pay more tax? If the tax is for paying to run the country, then it should be divided up equally between the citizens. After all, charging every citizen the same amount is the only way to be 'fair'"

How about having a fairer taxation system?
Maybe that way there would be no reason to evade / avoid tax.

Have a simple personal allowance and a single flat rate of tax.
How do you justify having an increasing % as you start to earn more? This is precisely what high-earners dislike.

Indeed.

The tax system needs simplification, and then enforcement.

 

[dowie]

Correct me if i'm wrong...but the legal definition is important, no? Since that's what laws are based on...

yup.... yet people keep on erroneously confusing the two and/or trying to paint the picture that 'avoidance' is just evasion by another name albeit with sneakier accountants. Which requires them to completely ignore all the various forms of avoidance which are explicitly allowed by the government.

 

[anything I don't mind]

?

you can claim back some:

http://www.listentotaxman.com/2014/news/156.html

Very kind of them to offer such a generous offer. It seems some what a consolation prize, compared to what business can claim as an expense. I still don't think it justifies calling a salary an income. Especially when they are so specific and make it so difficult to claim expenses. By contrast the mp's having strange expenses like bird baths and so on. Mean while the average man would just like to claim his suit as an expense for example.

 

[weringo]

I say either allow me to deduct expenses on my payee income tax or it is an income tax on my wage. Is it an income tax or a wage tax? Why am i unable to file tax deductible expenses unless I am a business?

In simple terms, a business may deduct expenses incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade to arrive at the taxable profits. Employees can only deduct expenses incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily for their employment (a much stricter test).

So yeah sucks to be an employee, but dem the rules!

 

[dowie]

Very kind of them to offer such a generous offer. It seems some what a consolation prize, compared to what business can claim as an expense. I still don't think it justifies calling a salary an income. Especially when they are so specific and make it so difficult to claim expenses. By contrast the mp's having strange expenses like bird baths and so on. Mean while the average man would just like to claim his suit as an expense for example.

I think your upset at this is based party on an incorrect view of how things work.

Firstly you were seemingly unaware that you could claim back expenses through PAYE, now it has been pointed out that you can you present an example of not being able to claim for a suit - well a self employed person can't claim for a suit either, just specialist clothing.

 

[estebanrey]

Mean while the average man would just like to claim his suit as an expense for example.

Apparently, if your work clothes are necessary for your role, you can claim back VAT on the washing powder for cleaning them. We had a flier come around for our manual workers advising them to claim for cleaning their PPE.

 

[anything I don't mind]

In simple terms, a business may deduct expenses incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade to arrive at the taxable profits. Employees can only deduct expenses incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily for their employment (a much stricter test).

So yeah sucks to be an employee, but dem the rules!

They do allow deductions in vat on clothing, why is that? Why not allow expense for payee people on items of work clothing, why only uniforms? There are many examples like this. the rich register business and escape all the tax while the employee picks up the tab through the payee pay roll system. I don't know how they managed to implement taking tax from salaries before they received it. I think it may have just been one of those things that they did and no one noticed that much, in the larger context. Do you know when taxes for an employee went from paying as an individual to having it deducted before you receive it?

They never give interest on rebates either but they always expect interest on late payment and even charge you extra for being late. Like it matters with their debt. Not only is it done through coercion but they are quite ruthless about it. They are not playing any games. They have 1000s of people out there with millions spent on ad campaigns to scare the public in to paying their tax. They even have advertising when there is no competition.

Look at this recent ad i saw on the train, i even saw a newer one where they had one eye only and it was massive, i saw it three times on the way home from work. On the train, on this advertisement board and then on a phone box outside my house. Just this one eye stairing at me. That is the face of modern taxation.

 

[estebanrey]

I don't know how they managed to implement taking tax from salaries before they received it. I think it may have just been one of those things that they did and no one noticed that much, in the larger context. Do you know when taxes for an employee went from paying as an individual to having it deducted before you receive it?

To be fair, you do get a small thing called 'employment rights' being in the PAYE system.

The alternative is to declare yourself a self-employed consultant for your company who can then terminate your contract whenever they like, for whatever they like.

 

[CREATIVE!11]

In an ideal world I'd want to pay my tax to create an overall better society and lift everyone else up too. After all I'm someone who benefits most from society and people working in my company. Without the people and this societal format I'd not exist or be able to be rich. So it'd be great if we all got along paid our dues and work towards something great.

That would be an ideal world....

 

[mattyg]

Turnover tax...

Oh yeah how would that work.

 

[Christmas themed thank]

Oh yeah how would that work.

Each company is taxed on their turnover: there would be no easy way to circumvent it by putting the funds elsewhere as the turnover would have to come from the UK.

 

[Jokester]

I think your upset at this is based party on an incorrect view of how things work.

Firstly you were seemingly unaware that you could claim back expenses through PAYE, now it has been pointed out that you can you present an example of not being able to claim for a suit - well a self employed person can't claim for a suit either, just specialist clothing.

I think the difference in this case though is that you could do it whilst self employed and HMRC would likely never ever find out about.

 

[anything I don't mind]

To be fair, you do get a small thing called 'employment rights' being in the PAYE system.

The alternative is to declare yourself a self-employed consultant for your company who can then terminate your contract whenever they like, for whatever they like.

I have no problem with the employer and employee relationship. I only have a problem with the income tax. Automatically deducting taxes from employees and forcing them to claim back money is theft. Why should an employer pay taxes on behalf of an employee? That was not the way it used to work, everyone was responsible for their own tax. They only implement that type of system so that they could generate more revenue.

 

[misteranonimous]

Fairness is subjective.

An argument against the current tax system can be that "Just because someone has earned more, why should they pay more tax? If the tax is for paying to run the country, then it should be divided up equally between the citizens. After all, charging every citizen the same amount is the only way to be 'fair'"

I totally agree with this line of thought.
The current "progressive" system of tax effectively penalizes more successful, hard working (That's how you got rich) and rewards the less successful, lazier people (That's why they're poor).

Assuming that everyone starts on the same level, of course. And given that the UK has free education up til 18, one can argue that the starting line is the same for everyone (perhaps).

 

[estebanrey]

Each company is taxed on their turnover: there would be no easy way to circumvent it by putting the funds elsewhere as the turnover would have to come from the UK.

So in short, no one would be able to start a new business given most make losses in the start-up years.