Is it possible to have more than one current account.

Steve_xx

Pincher wrote: »

This Personal Tax Account business is also worrying.
It is bound to use some kind automated metric, like total in and total out. If they tot up my five accounts, with the same £1,000 circulating, it's going to show up as £1,000 x 12 x 5 = £60,000 , before my real income.

Everyone in the country with any modest amount of savings is having to do the monthly shuffle game in order to maximise on interest now that the emphasis for paying interest has shifted from savings to current accounts.

Once HMRC note this in any random checks they do on people, then a pattern will emerge and no doubt they'll shift their attention elsewhere.

colsten

HMRC, like banks, haven't been reading up on the UK's leading moneysaving website, or any of the personal finances pages in the papers in the last few years. No HMRC or bank employees would put their savings into current accounts - they know their stuff and would only be using ISAs as these are tax free. Therefore, one day soon, it will come as a complete surprise and total shock to them that people ship the same amount of money between their own accounts month after month.

HMRC will also be hugely concerned about the people who have been generating extra tax with their current accounts, and even more about those who will continue to pay tax on their interest after next April.

/sarcasm

Pincher

colsten wrote: »

/sarcasm

I mentioned this example before. Basically, the HMRC ruined a couple I know because they had one item they could not account for on their account. Their little business was cash oriented. If the HMRC decides to pick on you, they can use any excuse to estimate your turnover, and it's up to you to challenge them.


This was an English guy, with an Irish wife, both university educated, not some dodgy set up you might be thinking.

colsten

If you think you would be unable to explain to the HMRC why you have been swapping/circling much the same monthly amounts between your own accounts, you are right, more than one current account doesn't sound right for you.

Pincher

I keep things simple.


Even then, it gets weird.


I did some trading 15 years ago, and had an accountant because I really didn't have a clue filing taxes. There was this anti-bed and breakfasting rule which was recently introduced, and the accountant said he worked out because some of the trades were too close together, the capital gains didn't count, so I had a technical capital loss of around £1,000 I could carry forward. The tax return was duly filed, and I carried on. Next year, the account had EMIGRATED to New Zealand, and I tried to carry forward the loss in the new tax return, and the HMRC rang me up, saying he could not see how I got the £1,000 loss, and I said the accountant filed it that way, but he's gone. Fortunately, the tax inspector just disallowed the loss, and I lived.


Call me paranoid if you like, but I really don't want to be audited.

colsten

As I said, if you think you would be unable to explain to the HMRC why you have been swapping/circling much the same monthly amounts between your own accounts, you are right, more than one current account doesn't sound right for you.

Thrugelmir

Pincher wrote: »

I mentioned this example before. Basically, the HMRC ruined a couple I know because they had one item they could not account for on their account. Their little business was cash oriented. If the HMRC decides to pick on you, they can use any excuse to estimate your turnover, and it's up to you to challenge them.


This was an English guy, with an Irish wife, both university educated, not some dodgy set up you might be thinking.

Then was self inflicted only themselves to blame. If they had declared their income as the vast majority of people do they would have had no problem. Failure to declare isn't just about not paying tax. There's also penalties, interest and fines to be paid.

Pincher

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Then was self inflicted only themselves to blame. If they had declared their income as the vast majority of people do they would have had no problem. Failure to declare isn't just about not paying tax. There's also penalties, interest and fines to be paid.

They were not trading dodgy cars.


The good ones get lumped in with the dodgy ones.
Of course there are crooks, but the HMRC doesn't know which is which, so they come down hard if they see anything out of place.


If an auditor just accepts assurances from you because you said so, how does anyone get caught?