Fake invoices?

anonimause

Hi all,

Sorry to be vague but I was wondering if anyone knew...

If an employer created a falsified invoice in an employees name (I.e John Doe's Plumbing Services) and pocketed the money them selves, who would the liability for any tax due fall on?

John Doe is completely unaware that the invoice exists and it's extremely likely that he never even done the work appearing on the invoice.

Hope that makes sense?

Cheers

Anonimause

CKhalvashi

anonimause wrote: »

Hi all,

Sorry to be vague but I was wondering if anyone knew...

If an employer created a falsified invoice in an employees name (I.e John Doe's Plumbing Services) and pocketed the money them selves, who would the liability for any tax due fall on?

John Doe is completely unaware that the invoice exists and it's extremely likely that he never even done the work appearing on the invoice.

Hope that makes sense?

Cheers

Anonimause

This would be one to speak with the Police about (Fraud by False Representation) and also HMRC to alert them of the situation immediately.

JD would have no comeback if this report was made, as it could have been done by anyone; The first thing that would spring to mind would be the customer who hadn't had the work done. If I were JD, I'd advise the client to do the same also.

Tell JD to call 101, report it to the police force, get a CRN and give that to HMRC, which is going to be the only way to clear himself from the outset. Whatever the Police say, this is NOT a private matter, it's a scam, and it's using a private individual to evade (potentially large amounts of) taxation.

I'd rather see 100 bosses go out the front door in handcuffs than one 'self-employed' professional get an HMRC grilling! They're not nice.

CK

anonimause

Thanks CK.

JD is an employee, so technically not self employed. Does that change anything?

MissSarah1972

anonimause wrote: »

Hi all,

Sorry to be vague but I was wondering if anyone knew...

If an employer created a falsified invoice in an employees name (I.e John Doe's Plumbing Services) and pocketed the money them selves, who would the liability for any tax due fall on?

John Doe is completely unaware that the invoice exists and it's extremely likely that he never even done the work appearing on the invoice.

Hope that makes sense?

Cheers

Anonimause

Forget about the tax it's FRAUD and they would have stolen from their employer. You can go to prison.

I would ask however how did the invoice get paid?

Via the bank means the employee would have had to change the bank details on the companies accounts package and if the company had a brain they would not allow one person alone to do this.

Or they were paid via a cheque and therefore only the name on the invoice could be paid.

anonimause

Unfortunately it's simpler than that.

The employer runs a very small company. He creates fictitious invoices to cover up money disappearing from the company accounts.

Anyone looking at the bank statement say a partner in the company will see an amount and then an invoice from John Doe's Plumbing Services for the same amount. Only the invoice is fake.

antonic

Have a look here :

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/reportingfraud/

and report them to HMRC

marybelle01

anonimause wrote: »

Unfortunately it's simpler than that.

The employer runs a very small company. He creates fictitious invoices to cover up money disappearing from the company accounts.

Anyone looking at the bank statement say a partner in the company will see an amount and then an invoice from John Doe's Plumbing Services for the same amount. Only the invoice is fake.

I really do agree with others here that this isn't a tax matter. It is fraud of the company accounts and theft and that is a police matter.

Evilm

Police matter.

However you say "partner of the company" might look at it above? Find a way to let them know - give them a chance to weed out the fraudster.

(PS do the invoices have VAT on them? Someone like John Doe plumbing could be considered small enough to not be turning over the required level to be VAT registered. If VAT is involved - as it will be being fraudulently claimed 'back' - another party that would be interested would be HMRC - if you can get them to take notice).

However I would tip off the rest of the management of the firm first if you reasonably believe they are not aware and involved.

Firefox1975

find out who the Auditors of the company are and tip them off annonymously i.e give them the specific invoices and amounts. then sit back and let them do their job

paddyrg

I would just let whoever creates or purchases the fake invoices have a chat with HMRC - this is exactly the kind of thing they want to get into as it'll open up a whole can of worms, plenty of fines to be issued if they aren't getting theor slice of tax!

MissSarah1972

anonimause wrote: »

Unfortunately it's simpler than that.

The employer runs a very small company. He creates fictitious invoices to cover up money disappearing from the company accounts.

Anyone looking at the bank statement say a partner in the company will see an amount and then an invoice from John Doe's Plumbing Services for the same amount. Only the invoice is fake.

So how are the invoices paid? They can not go on an accounts system and just sit there?
Someone must be posting debits to the creditors account from the bank account to match these invoices off? Who is doing that?

And why is there 'missing' money from the bank account?

Also as far as the general ledger goes is no one questioning why certain nominal codes are getting more charges on them or what the goods/serives are for? Who is signing off the invoices for payment?

Seems you have NO systems in place to stop ANY FRAUD at all.