roythebus wrote:
With some of these "cut price" merchants, I'm just waiting for the day HMRC get their teeth into them. I know that HMRC have an "average" a cabbie ought to earn based on his mileage, so if there's say 30,000 miles a year there ought to be about £20,000 earnt; so, if Mr Cutprice has only declared £10,000, he'll get taxed on £20k, unless he can prove otherwise,

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I know, I have a friend who used to be a high-up in HMRC doing such investigations.
HMRC also have a book, it has every trade with a ratio of a main cost vs takings
with taxis the main cost is fuel, £100 of fuel = (say) £400 takings
when they put down £250 of fuel down for £400 takings alarm bells ring, far simpler to put down 25% of declared takings as fuel and any excess mileages explain away as a driving holiday to Portugal...twice
There speaks a man that has never spent several hours with an Inland Revenue inspector they do not understand Logic only receipts and figures if you claim for a driving holiday they will want to see petrol receipts from where you have been !!!!!