Not paid any tax for 5 years. Help

glider3560

hgvdriverhelp wrote: »

I filled in a timesheet every week with my hours and the money was then paid into my account every Friday and as far as i saw it everything was done for me with regards to VAT.

Did you not find it odd that you never received a payslip? Never received a P60? Never received a tax coding notice from HMRC? Never received any mention of income tax or NI having been paid? I'm not educated in business or accounting, but it seems obvious that I should get a payslip every week/month showing my salary and tax deducted.

You will need to get this sorted. You can blame other people as much as you want, but ultimately you will need to sort this out at some point. It is likely you will need to file accounts for your various limited companies that you set up. This will then trigger a liability to pay corportation tax. You will also need to sort out whether your own company then employed you. Then another tax liability will be created. There are likely to be penalties and interest if these amounts have been overdue for many years.

All of the above will cost money to sort out, as you say that you cannot sort this out yourself. Contact Business Debtline. They will help you out and won't charge you a penny. They will help you determine what you owe and to who. It will help if you have as much paperwork as possible, maybe even bank statements if you no longer have anything from the agencies.

enthusiasticsaver

Whilst I am sorry for your predicament the fact remains if you have not paid any tax or NI since 2013 you need to contact HMRC and discuss a way forward.

Leaving it so long was a mistake and you do not need to be a business man to know that tax is not optional and should have enquired further or engaged a proper accountant if you were unable to do self assessment.

Re the Think Accounting I presume you signed some sort of contract? Did it not say there what the arrangements for tax were? Do you still have a copy of the original terms and conditions?

If the industry you work in demands that you are registered as self employed and you are unable to sort out the administration of this yourself then you need an accountant. Ask around for a decent one as you have found doing things on the cheap means that problems arise further down the line. They don't all charge a fortune and accountants fees are usually tax deductible so it can be done without costing you anything depending on how much you earn.

Not paying NI will also affect any benefits you may need to claim and state pension so that needs looking into as well.

hgvdriverhelp

FatVonD wrote: »

You need to find out whether the hourly rate they were paying you was inclusive of VAT, do you have payslips, remittance advice?

they used to send me an email every week but to be honest i never really read it because they always paid me on time , i just put it in the trash.
It had like a pay breakdown of hours worked if that is what you mean?
But No there was never any VAT showing but the slip was always about £100 less than what actually went into my bank. I presumed this was the benefit of having a limited company (a perk).
Because lets face it, if i have to pay tax and national insurance and VAT and uniform and holidays and sick , surely this is not right ?
That would make me in reality below minimum wage wouldn't it ?

hgvdriverhelp

glider3560 wrote: »

Did you not find it odd that you never received a payslip? Never received a P60? Never received a tax coding notice from HMRC? Never received any mention of income tax or NI having been paid? I'm not educated in business or accounting, but it seems obvious that I should get a payslip every week/month showing my salary and tax deducted.

No sir i didn't find it odd, i put my trust in the agency that said 'we do everything for you' this is exactly why i signed up with them in the first place . think accounting was a nightmare i didn't want that grief anymore.

If i can explain a little further?

Let's say you work at Mcdonald's , would you expect to fill in a P66 and a V515 or what ever ? this means nothing to people like me who know nothing about business , we were made to set up these company's to work for this firm and they told us that all the paperwork would be done for us.

If that Mcdonald's worker goes to work ever day at the same shop, starts the same time, finishes the same time and roughly gets paid the same wage every week why would he think other wise that everything is not being sorted for him?

No difference at all to how thousands of us have been working for 4 years.

about three weeks ago i actually bumped into a driver working for the same company who is new, i had never seen him before and i asked him who he worked for, he told me he worked for them! (he doesn't because when i asked him who paid him he said a payroll company that set up a Limited Company and does all the paperwork for him)
Just like me he does not have a clue.

glider3560

hgvdriverhelp wrote: »

Let's say you work at Mcdonald's , would you expect to fill in a P66 and a V515 or what ever ? this means nothing to people like me who know nothing about business , we were made to set up these company's to work for this firm and they told us that all the paperwork would be done for us.

I appreciate what you're saying, but you allowed them to do this in your name. Ultimately, you were responsible for the action they took in your name.

hgvdriverhelp wrote: »

No difference at all to how thousands of us have been working for 4 years.

But presumably the others understood their responsibility as a company director and correctly file their accounts and taxes. "Sorry, officer, I was speeding because everyone else was speeding" wouldn't wash, so you cannot blame other people's misunderstanding for your own misunderstanding.

You are aggreved. We get that. What we need you to do is accept that you need to get this sorted, then we can help you.

elsien

You need to forget about the thousands of others you think are in your situation and start taking steps to resolve this for yourself.
It might not be fair, and there might be some sort of group action in the future, but that's not going to get anything resolved for you as an individual. You seem to be using the information from the BBC to work yourself up whilst trying to avoid taking any action that will actually be of any use. You're distracting yourself with righteous indignation and it's not going to help.
Contact the organisations you've been told about. Start resolving your particular situation. Campaigning for change can come later.

hgvdriverhelp

glider3560 wrote: »

I appreciate what you're saying, but you allowed them to do this in your name. Ultimately, you were responsible for the action they took in your name.

But presumably the others understood their responsibility as a company director and correctly file their accounts and taxes. "Sorry, officer, I was speeding because everyone else was speeding" wouldn't wash, so you cannot blame other people's misunderstanding for your own misunderstanding.

You are aggreved. We get that. What we need you to do is accept that you need to get this sorted, then we can help you.

So this is where the situation gets very sticky isn't it. Lets say that everyone else has filed there accountants and everything is being done to hide these people from the truth, are they not all breaking the law ?
Many people have now said there is a rule called IR35 and every single one of these people must be lying to get away with it, Ether that or there accountants are!

I have told you the facts, we work as normal employees would at the same place every day and have done for 4 years. We are even called Full Time Employees !

So lets say i chose NOT to lie, i will not lie for these people to an accountant to sort this mess out, does that mean i now owe five years worth of TAX and National Insurance that a normal employee has to pay - so there Directors can fly around in jet planes ?

My only other option to save a lifetime of debt would be to 'lie' to make my self IR35 compliant like the rest of these drivers must be doing to get away with what they are doing OR maybe they are in the same situation as me and don't even know it yet.

So lets look at both of my options again .
Option 1 (Don't lie) owe a fortune for the rest of your life when you work for minimum wage. (no more holidays for me then ever and forget that second had fiat Punto you have been saving up for!)

Option 2. LIE , Lie for them and lie to let them get away with this, they get rich while you suffer and you have to pay there taxes . OR you never work as a Lorry driver ever again.

Both options are looking a little slim in the quality of life aspect arn't they.

What would GOD think ?

I don't lie. sorry.

Pixie5740

There is always a solution to a debt problem so phone Business Debtline to find out what options you have.

Windofchange

It would seem that HMRC are already aware of the problem.

http://jcoates.co.uk/uncategorized/lorry-drivers-stung-over-accounting-firm-tax-dodge/

This would say to me that they will be very aware of who hasn't paid their tax, whether rightly or wrongly. I should imagine it would be pretty easy for the authorities to get a list of people who were signed up with think accounting, addresses, places of work etc etc. It seems as though others have already been contacted for monies owed. As per others in this thread, you need to get in touch with them to try and sort this out as I should imagine it is only a matter of time before they get to your name on the list.

I used to know a self employed tennis coach a number of years ago. Turns out he decided not to pay tax on his earnings. I remember the day well when we all got a mail saying that HMRC were having a crack down on self employed gym staff, and that the company would be sending all our invoices off for scrutiny. They threw the proverbial book at him - lost his job and faced a bill running into tens of thousands of pounds which then forced him to go bankrupt.

You could be as innocent as the virgin Mary in relation to all this, but ultimately the way the law sees it, we are each responsible for paying our dues. It sounds like you have been dealt a crap hand, and I wish you luck. If this is causing you drink problems, surely it's best to just get it all done with and whether good news or bad at least have some closure?

caeler

Hi Op - I can't help with your tax issues but I can assure you that there is plenty of permanent PAYE work for Class 1 drivers. Yes it means you'll be PAYE (and I guess the hourly rate will be less) but given the experience you've had you might prefer this. Driving Agencies have a lot of answer for and all of this self-employed stuff is complex. Get working direct for a transport company IMHO.