I opnce had the tax man make me go back 4 years, wasn't any fault of ours though, unknown to us we had a crooked accountant, he ended out doing time. He screwed us and landed us in hot water with the tax man to boot.
Afterwards we thought we had found a top notch accountant, meticulous, fussy, precise.
But his charge went up each year, bigger and bigger increases.
He also did the accounts for our hairdresser, she told us that she would just stuff all her reciepts and so on into a Tescos carrier bag and leave him to it.
My wife would submit ours almost completed for him.
As a window cleaner accounts are quite simple, few overheads and few materials.
He had only to fill out the tax form for us really.
With Louise (the hairdresser) he had to do everything, and only charged her £100 or so for his services.
We on the other hand were having to pay him around £400
She is a bit of a babe, and I can only assume he fancied her, but the disparity in his charges and the work he had to carry out was outrageous!
have done my own tax since then using Which Tax Calc, and if I have a query I ring up the local tax office for guidance, have found them really good too.
The tax men aren't stupid, they know roughly what the average window cleaner will turn over in any particular area of the Country, and I have been told that when you try and fiddle your return by, say, overcooking your fuel receipts, they will know that if your turnover is £xxx and you are claiming £yyy in fuel costs, they will know that in relation to your turnover, what you are claiming doesn't ring true.
As I understand it, there can be several such indicators in a tax return that can give away a tax dodger and I would imagine that if you 'trip' enough alarms you will have them descend on you, making your life a misery
On that happy note I shall go
Ian