Faulty T-Shirt, no receipt

McKneff

pendulum wrote: »

Huh? That is basically what the guy above you (McKneff) said. What part of what he, or anyone else on this thread, has said is wrong?

Thanks pendulum - guess you were the only one who read my post properly - i had to re-read it myself, thought i was going nuts or something;)

pendulum

You have no proof at all that they are evading tax, and contrary to a previous poster, I'd think very carefully before throwing such threats around. I know quite a lot of small shop owners and some would take a malicious threat to report them to the tax authorities both personally and very seriously. It is after all their livelihood.

Ignore his advice. Bad idea, over a cheap T shirt!

sporedude

Going to HMRC over a T-shirt is just !!!!!!.

McKneff

In all probabability there was a receipt, but we lose things, we drop things,
it was maybe in the bag and the bag has been thrown away.

ShaneUK

Threaten to complain to HM Customs - they could possibly not be ringing it through the tills, hence why a receipt isn't being given. Could be trying to avoid paying VAT to the tax man


Following text taken from Reporting Tax Fraud on Directgov (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/ContactOrDealWithHMRC/DG_10010579)
VAT fraud

If a business charges you VAT it must be VAT registered and must declare any VAT it charges to HMRC.
Some businesses deliberately avoid registering for VAT, thereby gaining an unfair advantage over their competitors. Others may either be bogus or may lie about the amount of VAT that they owe.
You might know that a business is not declaring all the VAT they're charging, or you might think that they're not because they:

• ask you to pay them in cash and are reluctant to provide an invoice
• request that payment is made to someone other than the business
• offer a discount for cash and are reluctant to accept cheques or credit cards
• offer goods for sale at substantially below market value
• put money into an open till drawer without ringing up a sale

Ste_C

Just because she wasn't given a receipt it doesn't mean it didn't go through the till. I buy loads of things without getting a receipt; milk, a newspaper, magazines etc And very few shops operate without barcodes these days either so I'm sure it would have been scanned

If you want a receipt and you aren't given one, then of course you can ask and must be given one.

full-time-mum

Thanks for all your replies.

The shop is a bit of an oddity, it is small and aims, I think, to attract the teenagers. Its very rough and ready.

Nothing is bar coded and all the sizing is a bit odd so I suspect they are cheap imports. I've no reason to believe there is any tax evaision going on but its the sort of place where it wouldn't surprise me - if you get my drift. I don't believe that the receipt has been lost as I'm sure they are the sort of place that wouldn't bother. Proof of purchase would boil down to the fact they still have stock on the racks and she went in with a friend and they both bought identical shirts.

I think I'll go in and see if being a bit assertive does the trick. Otherwise, it will just have to be a learning curve for DD - next time she will insist on a receipt plus she can warn her friends too.