[DaveG]

If i ever do something wrong i always get caught so i declare everything even to the wife who is way scarier than the tax man

And i thought i had worries!!!!! lolol

[Niall McAllister]

why would you not declare your earnings?
you earn money, you pay tax!
anyone that doesn't pay their full share it a thief and a waste of space.
window cleaner or anyone else.

[ps outthere]

How do I turn my business into an off shore business? 
There are a lot of very wealthy people that use our governments legitimate tax rules.

[seandyer2003]

seen it, based on  them essex shooting, film called essex boys or something like that on same story...

[trike]

and after you declare takings dont forget your big tax return each year,like mine

[Sir Squeaky]

i tell you what we havent had for a while



 a poll with how much do you earn on it,

[Pole 2 Pole]

why would you not declare your earnings?
you earn money, you pay tax!
anyone that doesn't pay their full share it a thief and a waste of space.
window cleaner or anyone else.

A tad harsh Niall, don't ya think? If that's the case then Parliament is full of people that are thieves and a waste of space. OK point taken  Seriously though, i think that comment was slightly over the top fella. If everyone of us declared 95% of what we earnt, i personally wouldn't have a problem with it as the workin class and lower middle classes are shafted left,right and center with absolutely no help whatsoever from any of Her Majestys organisations. I wouldn't lose a moments sleep if i done a one off job for a fiver and put it towards the xmas fund. Not that i'd ever dream of it, mind 

[jeff1]

To be honest, I'm not that honest, but I don't truly know a window cleaner who is!

I know a few who say they're 'tax ligititimate', but after having knowing them for a few years; I know this isn't the whole truth.

Do you really declare everything?  Tips?  What do you do if you're given an expensive bottle of whisky as a tip (which has happened to me).  Do you work out the value of it and declare that?

And what about using a work vehicle for private purposes, yet not taking that into account when working out your expenses.

I also work my turnover out as the amount I've cleaned that day; not the amount of money I've received (I find that easier).  But I know many, if not most window cleaners work their turnover as the amount of money they've actually received that day; and if they've bought lunch from their turnover, well that get missed from the total.

Is anyone here really 'whiter-that-white'?

I honestly doubt it, though I bet some claim that they are.

Spot on Tosh
Why on earth do we employ accountants? they are employed  by us, Not only to do our tax returns but to get us the best deal and save us money and if that includes loosing a few bob here and there, then who amongst us says ''No don't do that I want to pay my tax on it''

Regarding gifts and tips from customers then all this should be declared to the tax man and tax's should be paid on it, the tax man will give you an average of what you should pay on any gift.

[trike]

anyone need an accountant my wifes the best

[Sir Squeaky]

Regarding gifts and tips from customers then all this should be declared to the tax man and tax's should be paid on it, the tax man will give you an average of what you should pay on any gift.

A gift's a gift.
You're allowed up to something like £2000 a year gifts.

If anyone gives some of their gifts or tips to the taxman they want their head read.
Or they're liars...which is most likely when this subject comes up... :

[Ian_Giles]

My god there are some honest people on here!

I think the tax man is fully aware that people in jobs like ours that handle plenty of cash don't always declare 100% of it, but we are small potatoes, the average window cleaner banks less than 20k per year.
Most of us bank most of our money, we have to, we won't get by otherwise.

do you really think the tax man is that stupid?

If you assume that most of us are pretty honest - and most of us are - then if the tax man decides to investigate one of us he might only find a few hundred quids worth of discrepancies, and much time and effort will have gone into doing so.
Far better in investigate businesses who aren't such pipsqueaks.
They will view small businesses as those who employ 30 or 40 people, probably all of which earn more than the average window cleaner banks in an entire year! Their time and effort chasing down tax dodgers of this size (and of course far larger) represents a far better return for their time and effort, way better than chasing down the many thousands of individual window cleaners, gardeners, hair dressers, decorators and the like.
They could probably pull almost any one of our files and find discrepancies if they wanted to...

Ian

[jeff1]

You don't give any of your gifts to the tax man your supposed to declare every gift you get, so that he can charge you a percentage of there value.

I tell the taxman I do not except gifts or tips from my customers, I prefer to keep it strictly on a business level, take from that what you must

[steven ainger]

i will be declaring evey single penny i earnt today.....................nothing

[Tosh]

anyone that doesn't pay their full share it a thief and a waste of space.
window cleaner or anyone else.

Prince Charles has come under scrutiny for the past few years for tax avoidance; fortunately he has the money to pay top accountants to cover his dodgy tracks.

If our First-In-Line-For-Head-Of-State can do it; then so can we.  Oh, and the Queen has only been paying income tax for about the past 20 years!

Then if you look at the Blairs; there's been a few dodgy housing deals done in amassing their multi-million pound portfollio of property.

I bet if I looked through any window cleaner's books, thoroughly, and compared them with phone bills, bank statements and the like, I would find anomalies.

The other day I saw Squeaky driving his Missis and child in his work van; I know they have a private car; so I hope Squeaks takes the mileage into consideration for using his work vehicle for private purposes and subtracts a fair amount from his vehicle expenses.

I say again; non of us are 'whiter-than-white', though admitedly, I bet some kick-the-bottom out of it.

[Sir Squeaky]

The other day I saw Squeaky driving his Missis and child in his work van; I know they have a private car; so I hope Squeaks takes the mileage into consideration for using his work vehicle for private purposes and subtracts a fair amount from his vehicle expenses.

No, can't have been me.
There's loads of van's like mine, all with yellow ducks on...

[seandyer2003]

The other day I saw Squeaky driving his Missis and child in his work van; I know they have a private car; so I hope Squeaks takes the mileage into consideration for using his work vehicle for private purposes and subtracts a fair amount from his vehicle expenses.

No, can't have been me.
There's loads of van's like mine, all with yellow ducks on...

Yellow ducks??

[alanwilson]

who gave the tax man the right to take away our money?

think about it

we take money from customers - lets say £10 - the customer likely had to earn £14 to get that £10 note after paying tax.  We now have to pay another £3 in tax on the money we received from the customer who had already paid tax on it.  

£7 left from £14

lets say we buy £7 of diesel (just an example)

from that £7, £4 immediately goes in tax.

£3 left

the fuel company makes £2.50 from this in profit and pays tax @ 40%

fuel company pays £1.82 in tax.

So from an initial £14 the government has taken £12.82 in tax.

Thats the bottom line, we are the most highly taxed nation I know of.

So for those who don't pay tax - well they already are.

except we have to foot the bill for the extra the don't pay.

[Moderator David@stives]

There was a program on last night , and compared to other nations we arent doing that bad, we were taxed more in the thatcher years believe or not.

Figures from The Institute for Fiscal Studies show that the Thatcher government was the heaviest taxer in the last 30 years, with total tax rate of GDP hitting 46 per cent at one point. This was later reduced to 35.8 per cent, but the average from 1979 to 1997 was 40.8 per cent.  New Labour’s highest rate in its 11 years of government has been 39.4 per cent and its lowest when it started was 37.1 per cent.

[Moderator David@stives]

Overall, UK taxpayers face a relatively low tax burden by world standards. The overall burden on taxpayers, as measured by the OECD is, below the OECD average and well below the highs reached in the 1980s.

The Government set out in its 1997 Statement of Intent on environmental taxation that it would shift the burden of taxation from 'goods' (such as employment) to 'bads' (such as pollution) e.g. climate change levy was accompanied by 0.3 percentage point cut in employers' NICs contributions.

[Tosh]

Dave,

If you're right, how is it that I'm taking on better paying work, but never seem to feel financially better off for doing it?

Last week I put £60 in my car and now my tank is almost empty!