Self employed - beware!!!!

transient

patanne wrote: »

These sites know perfectly well that they are in the business of scamming people into paying for something that does not need to be paid for. Therefore they are scamming sites and should be shut down. It would be interesting to know if they are actually paying tax on the money they scam.

They are not scamming, they are providing a service. I can walk to the station for free but if I choose to get a taxi, then I pay for that service, the same result is attained albeit by different methods

patanne

What service to they actually provide other than being a non value added intermediary?

POPPYOSCAR

transient wrote: »

They are not scamming, they are providing a service. I can walk to the station for free but if I choose to get a taxi, then I pay for that service, the same result is attained albeit by different methods

Not the same thing at all.

Some of these sites look remarkably like they are the official thing and not everybody is so internet savvy.

I was in a hurry to do the congestion charge once and clicked on one of these sites - at first glance I thought the charge had gone up but then realised what the site actually was - they bank on people not realising.

transient

patanne wrote: »

What service to they actually provide other than being a non value added intermediary?

They fill out the forms and submit them for you

patanne

I agree and they do BANK on it

transient

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Not the same thing at all.

Some of these sites look remarkably like they are the official thing and not everybody is so internet savvy.

I was in a hurry to do the congestion charge once and clicked on one of these sites - at first glance I thought the charge had gone up but then realised what the site actually was - they bank on people not realising.

There is nothing wrong with the sites at all. As for people not realising, yes that is an element of them but for people not realising, well that's their responsibility. When the gas man comes to my door do I let him in because he looks like and he says he is the gasman?

patanne

probably, but then he is only reading your meter not charging you extra for reading it

cavework

TBH if you are self employed you register this with HMRC.
The problem lies with people who want to submit their own tax returns instead of using an accountant and for low turnover I can understand where the poster is coming from.
Google Tax returns and these companies come up first before the HMRC.Gov websiteThis company use THE TERM GATEWAY!
.IMPORTANT ignore any emails
Instead use the information provided by HMRC when you register as self employed.. never give any credit or debit card details to anyone purporting to be from HMRC ..if you are asked for this , call the legit HMRC contact number and query it
As for the people saying they are a legit business .. why are they using 'Gateway' in their business name ?
It suggests to me an underhanded way to get business.