Monday, June 13, 2011

Don't advertise on the web

Well what I mean by that is that if you are one of those who share their talents for a few bob, you know a bit of piano, art, dance footy and you neglect to tell the taxman about Tarquin popping round to tinkle your ivories then get you services down off the web and pronto.
PRIVATE TUTORS will be the subject of the taxman's next campaign against tax avoidance, it announced today.
HM Revenue & Customs has said that there is a greater "risk" involved with those who provide private tuition.
It said this campaign will "address the risk posed by all professionals who, because of their field of expertise, are able to earn money from providing tuition and coaching - either as a main or a secondary income". It will cover people providing private lessons, "regardless of whether they have a teaching qualification, and could include, for example, fitness/dance/lifestyle coaches through to national curriculum subject tutors and others".
And trust me, where the taxman cometh, than the chap waving a CRB form will surely follow. Then the regulator, and the snare-toothed woman in ghastly NHS specs demanding that you have passed a EU certified qualification.

And I love that HMRC use of the term 'risk'. To whom?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had the HMRC inspectors pounce on us (a small business) a few years ago. They were in for almost a week and drove us mad with their nit-picking. One of their findings was that we were breaking tax law by paying the window cleaner out of petty cash instead of by invoice; cost us a four-figure fine.

Paul Coombes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paul Coombes said...

Notice the use of the phrase tax avoidance. They keep using it when they are actually referring to tax evasion. I am sure that this is being done deliberately so that people gradually come to think of them as exactly the same thing. We have to keep reminding ourselves that tax avoidance is legal whereas tax evasion is illegal.
An example of tax avoidance; buying a printed book rather than buying it in Kindle format. An example of tax evasion: earning money as a tutor and not declaring it on your tax form as income.

This is the previous posting edited to remove the terrible typing mistakes.

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