Not part of the recent HMRC e-Marketplace campaign, but today the Daily Mail tells of a couple jailed for failing to declare earnings from eBay and selling at car boot sales.
Apparently their impressive sounding sales of £350,000 were spread over a seven year period, so in reality they didn’t have a particularly high turnover. It only works out to about £3000 in sales per month plus some property deals of around £90,000. It was more than enough to get the prosecuted for money laundering and as well as the jail time they’ve also to face their assets being seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
If you know of anyone selling online that failed to take advantage of the recent HMRC e-Marketplace campaign we’d still recommend contacting them before they come knocking on your door. They may have missed the amnesty but HMRC will still look upon anyone coming forward voluntarily then on someone that caught failing to declare their income.
10 Responses
Wow, seems a bit harsh to me. I would have expected them to be given a large Tax bill and fine? Were they dealing in stolen goods or something?
The quoted £350,000 plus £90,000 in Property Sales. Was this the lot or what HMRC could prove and that they would admit. After all they may very well have thought that they were just going to get a very large tax bill etc. In which case they may very well have been quite happy to admit what HMRC could prove in the hope of minimising the Tax Bill. It could be that the Jail Time was a nasty surprise but by that time it was far too late to say “Oh by the way we didn’t tell you about the other £500,000 or whatever”
tip of the iceberg
obviously more to this ,
they have done them for what they could make stick, tax evasion is always a good route
Makes you wonder how they got caught? Was it HMRC who tracked them down
If they were active as Car Boots then it is possible that the local Trading Standards got involved. After all if they were dealing in New Products rather than Second Hand then it is likely that they attracted attention at Car Boots. If they seemed to be substantial traders then a quick phone call to HMRC and then the ball starts to roll on several fronts.
Its also possible that they were boasting about how they were getting away with not paying tax and somebody overheard and reported them.
I have always been amazed about the car that is caught with no tax, insurance, or MOT that when it is caught and inspected is found to be full of illegal drugs or weapons. I would have thought that if you are breaking the Law you would not highlight the fact by doing something stupid to bring yourself to the attention of the authorities.
“Its also possible that they were boasting about how they were getting away with not paying tax and somebody overheard and reported them.”
them and a million others !tax had bugger all to do with it
dont be daft trading standards and boasting about not paying tax would not worry these people, they are serious criminals