Should he be taxed?

ROBS797

Hi, first thread so apologies for any mistakes:

I have bought my first house and a friend of the family has been helping me with some renovation work. Most of his contribution has been in the form of advice and he has also done some of the more skilled work such as bricklaying a new garden wall and laying paving.

He has a full time job but helps me out at weekends. In return, I have bought materials to share with him to do work on his own house, we have been on several nights out, :beer: and I have given him cash for tools (cutting wheels and drills for example) and also for his petrol as he lives a fair distance from me. I have also let him have a couple of power tools that I will not use again (cement mixer)

I think one of the neighbours may have spoken to the inland revenue about the activities going on, under the iluision that we are up to something dodgy. Apparently a couple of suited gentlemen visited the house today, looking for "the builder".

Im a little worried now as I have not kept receipts for the money I have spent, nearly all of which has been on materials.

Could I have made trouble for myself or my builder friend? We both work full time for employers and pay the correct tax and NI on our wages. If I give him a few quid or let him have some materials, am I going to get into trouble?

Thanks very much for any advice, it is greatly appreciated!

Regards,

1 naive new homwowner

CLAPTON

depends upon who the suited gentlemen were

maybe building regs people / planning department depending what work you are doing?

McKneff

I would stop worrying, youre only worrying bcause youre feeling guilty and frightened your going to get into trouble.

Stop it now, the neighbour would have no idea about your or your mates finances. It 99% sure that something has been built or too much noise or
something like that, she would only report on something that she could see so
stop worrying and deal with it when they come back. As Clapton says, its more than likely its the planning dept checking up.

And learn from it, keep all receipts.

fengirl_2

If HMRC do a reccy on a suspected tax evader, they don't announce their presence by asking for the builder and they usually dont wear suits! They would be much more subtle, taking down car registrations, etc and they can get information about the owners of properties very easily. Its more likely to be building regs people.
Retain the receipts for everything you have bought and make a note of what you have given to your friend if ever you are challenged in the future. But remember that if HMRC did think that your friend was receiving payment for work done for you, they would have to wait until Jan 2011 in order to challenge him as thats when any return for his profits would be due. Otherwise, this sounds like the normal situation of a friend helping a friend.