Harnett Accountants Kingston brings you this report from the BBC Business News website:
“Treasury minister David Gauke has said it is “morally wrong” to pay tradesmen such as plumbers, builders and cleaners in cash in the hope of avoiding tax.
He argued the practice came at “a big cost” to the Treasury and meant other people had to pay more.
But Treasury sources stressed Mr Gauke was answering a specific question rather than proposing a policy change.
Labour said the government should be focusing on “clamping down” on “large-scale tax avoidance”.
Asked if he ever had paid cash to tradesmen to reduce his costs, London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “I’ve certainly paid a lot of cash in hand.”
In response to the same question, Local Government secretary Eric Pickles said: “Certainly not.”
And Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “David Gauke was saying that tax-dodging is wrong and personally I haven’t dodged tax.”
The government is estimated to lose about £2bn each year to the black economy as tradesmen fail to pay VAT or income tax by not declaring payments and keeping them “off the books.”
Source: Full article
If you need advice about how to reduce your tax bills, or how to run your business in the most tax efficient way possible, please contact Harnett Accountants Kingston, and we will arrange a free, one hour, no obligation consultation. You can contact us through our website or on 020 8977 3883. Also you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.