In todays news...

[Docca]

[mangocrazy]

Compare and contrast O'Mara getting 4 years in the slammer for trying to embezzle £52,000 with Nadhim Zahawi getting fined and told off for avoiding over £3 million in tax.

I am not trying to support O'Mara in any way - he was a chancer who managed to get the MP nomination due to being disadvantaged (autistic). What really does need looking at are Sheffield Labour's selection criteria.

[Mussels]

Compare and contrast O'Mara getting 4 years in the slammer for trying to embezzle £52,000 with Nadhim Zahawi getting fined and told off for avoiding over £3 million in tax.

I am not trying to support O'Mara in any way - he was a chancer who managed to get the MP nomination due to being disadvantaged (autistic). What really does need looking at are Sheffield Labour's selection criteria.

The difference is one of those involved illegal activity and the other didn't.
HMRC like to make up tax rules that aren't law, its murky area and they often fall foul of judges. I suspect neither side wanted a court case so they came to an arrangement.
You now have to declare on tax returns that you aren't trying to avoid tax, WTF does that even mean? ISAs are a way of avoiding tax, taking a pay cut avoids tax, using part of your spouses tax allowance is avoiding tax.

[DefTrap]

An MP sentenced to 4 years in prison for fraud committed while he was in office is boring, but government advisor going for a picnic at a northern castle is interesting?

Apparently yes, it's not me who decides.

We have seen a lot of expenses fraud / rule-breaking / taking-the-piss over the years. 1k a roll wallpaper; building duck-houses; clearing moats. Mainly the Tories, it has to be said, and a lot of them ended up in jail. They do make the news but they tend to be primarily MP nobodies because basically they're all at it. And this case, in £, is small beans compared to the really shifty ones - who seem to want to be congratulated for stiffing us for millions. What's your point?

The #1 government advisor breaking the rules (a rules that they were at the center of making) in the middle of a pandemic and then compounding it with a load of pathetic excuses, is pretty novel.

[Ant]

Compare and contrast O'Mara getting 4 years in the slammer for trying to embezzle £52,000 with Nadhim Zahawi getting fined and told off for avoiding over £3 million in tax.

I am not trying to support O'Mara in any way - he was a chancer who managed to get the MP nomination due to being disadvantaged (autistic). What really does need looking at are Sheffield Labour's selection criteria.

The difference is one of those involved illegal activity and the other didn't.
HMRC like to make up tax rules that aren't law, its murky area and they often fall foul of judges. I suspect neither side wanted a court case so they came to an arrangement.
You now have to declare on tax returns that you aren't trying to avoid tax, WTF does that even mean? ISAs are a way of avoiding tax, taking a pay cut avoids tax, using part of your spouses tax allowance is avoiding tax.

It's like talking to a brick wall with him, it won't sink in. Had I have made that point, the hate brigade would chime in, but there's still time....

[mangocrazy]

Compare and contrast O'Mara getting 4 years in the slammer for trying to embezzle £52,000 with Nadhim Zahawi getting fined and told off for avoiding over £3 million in tax.

I am not trying to support O'Mara in any way - he was a chancer who managed to get the MP nomination due to being disadvantaged (autistic). What really does need looking at are Sheffield Labour's selection criteria.

The difference is one of those involved illegal activity and the other didn't.
HMRC like to make up tax rules that aren't law, its murky area and they often fall foul of judges. I suspect neither side wanted a court case so they came to an arrangement.
You now have to declare on tax returns that you aren't trying to avoid tax, WTF does that even mean? ISAs are a way of avoiding tax, taking a pay cut avoids tax, using part of your spouses tax allowance is avoiding tax.

Zahawi's actions were illegal, otherwise he wouldn't have had to pay a £1 million penalty in addition to tax owed and interest.

[Skub]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern- ... Lfp-j-6euk
No racing in NI

Oh wow... that's a bit of a shocker... I'd have thought there would be contingency plans like local governments helping out as it'll increase their overall income from a race being held there.

The local lot of useless tribal leaders have been getting paid to do nothing for 18 months or so,getting them back to work to do anything at all doesn't fill me with hope.

[Mussels]

Compare and contrast O'Mara getting 4 years in the slammer for trying to embezzle £52,000 with Nadhim Zahawi getting fined and told off for avoiding over £3 million in tax.

I am not trying to support O'Mara in any way - he was a chancer who managed to get the MP nomination due to being disadvantaged (autistic). What really does need looking at are Sheffield Labour's selection criteria.

The difference is one of those involved illegal activity and the other didn't.
HMRC like to make up tax rules that aren't law, its murky area and they often fall foul of judges. I suspect neither side wanted a court case so they came to an arrangement.
You now have to declare on tax returns that you aren't trying to avoid tax, WTF does that even mean? ISAs are a way of avoiding tax, taking a pay cut avoids tax, using part of your spouses tax allowance is avoiding tax.

Zahawi's actions were illegal, otherwise he wouldn't have had to pay a £1 million penalty in addition to tax owed and interest.

That's not how HMRC operates, tax law tends to be vague and both sides will try to use it to their advantage. HMRC is a seeker of money, not justice. They would take pocket money from a baby if they could.
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck ... -explained

“They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error,” he added. The HMRC compliance handbook says ‘careless’ means a failure to take reasonable care in relation to your tax affairs.

[Potter]

He tried to claim £52k of public money he wasn't entitled to, this is chicken feed when compared to the PPI contract Matt Hancock awarded to a bloke he met in a pub, or the £29m from a PPI contract "resting" in Baroness Mone's bank account. If he was a Tory they would have rounded it up to £5m and given him a peerage.

If Hancock is convicted in a court of law you'll be able to post about it

[Mr. Dazzle]

The HMRC compliance handbook says ‘careless’ means a failure to take reasonable care in relation to your tax affairs.

Clearly working hand in glove with the Department for Tautology Department.

[mangocrazy]

That's not how HMRC operates, tax law tends to be vague and both sides will try to use it to their advantage. HMRC is a seeker of money, not justice. They would take pocket money from a baby if they could.
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck ... -explained

Yes, tax law is deliberately vague and also large and getting larger every year. It's a bit like legacy computer code that no-one wants to re-write, but just keep tacking new bits on.

“They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error,” he added. The HMRC compliance handbook says ‘careless’ means a failure to take reasonable care in relation to your tax affairs.

I'd surmise that Zahawi has good lawyers, otherwise he'd have been found guilty of a much more serious 'careless and deliberate' charge. How do you 'forget' to pay tax on a sum that big? It's not like he's illiterate about tax. He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer when all this came to light, ffs. And then he threatens investigative journalists with writs when they print the truth about his affairs.

You couldn't make it up

[Potter]

I doubt Zahawi actually has much to do with his tax returns, I know I have little to do with mine, the accountant askes some questions, I answer and sign at the end. It's the accountants that appear to have done things badly.

It's not like the thousands of jobbing builders and IT people that deliberately file false tax returns every year and get done for it, bang to rights.

[irie]

I doubt Zahawi actually has much to do with his tax returns, I know I have little to do with mine, the accountant askes some questions, I answer and sign at the end.

Ditto.

[Count Steer]

I doubt Zahawi actually has much to do with his tax returns, I know I have little to do with mine, the accountant askes some questions, I answer and sign at the end.

Ditto.

I always tried to understand things I signed off on...including anything the accountants and others put it front of me. Even contracts where I was told 'It's a standard contract'. In the end, your signature makes it your responsibility.

[Potter]

I doubt Zahawi actually has much to do with his tax returns, I know I have little to do with mine, the accountant askes some questions, I answer and sign at the end.

Ditto.

I always tried to understand things I signed off on...including anything the accountants and others put it front of me. Even contracts where I was told 'It's a standard contract'. In the end, your signature makes it your responsibility.

I obviously understand the gist of it, but I rely on my accountant to advise me what is legal and what is allowed, how to navigate through the various declarations, deductions, etc, and how to file it within the rules.

Being a Chartered Accountant is a profession that takes years to become qualified in, it would be arrogant to think anyone can pick it up as a layman and understand everything, if that were possible then we wouldn't need accountants. I can understand a reasonable amount of law, and if a barrister explained stuff to me I'd probably grasp the majority of it, but I'd still want one to conduct my defence if i were up in a crown court.

[Count Steer]

Ditto.

I always tried to understand things I signed off on...including anything the accountants and others put it front of me. Even contracts where I was told 'It's a standard contract'. In the end, your signature makes it your responsibility.

I obviously understand the gist of it, but I rely on my accountant to advise me what is legal and what is allowed, how to navigate through the various declarations, deductions, etc, and how to file it within the rules.

Being a Chartered Accountant is a profession that takes years to become qualified in, it would be arrogant to think anyone can pick it up as a layman and understand everything, if that were possible then we wouldn't need accountants. I can understand a reasonable amount of law, and if a barrister explained stuff to me I'd probably grasp the majority of it, but I'd still want one to conduct my defence if i were up in a crown court.

Don't disagree with any of that but, at the end of the day, it's your signature. As I understand it, on that basis, Zahawi paid a 30% penalty. If he had been wrongly advised I would expect him to be able to recover that sum + reputational damages etc from his accountants. I can't find any information that he has. That doesn't mean he hasn't of course, but if it was me I'd be going public on my efforts to recover the ££s in order to show that the professional advice that I'd trusted was, to say the least, negligent.

[Mussels]

I understand most contracts I sign even if they bury important stuff. I understand little about my tax return and the links to explanations don't help. It's almost like they make it difficult deliberately.
I'm trying to get rid of my accountant at the moment, it's worse than quitting a gym contract with the number of hurdles and delays they put up while still claiming a monthly fee.

[Taipan]

What a waste of a life and freedom, but deserved sentences. Every day for many years they'll be thinking, fuck, wrong bloke could be down the pub now etc. Violent idiots.

Eight men who kidnapped and murdered a man they wrongly suspected of rape have been jailed.

Christopher Hughes, from Wigan, was found dead near a road in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, in February 2022.

The 37-year-old was stabbed more than 90 times after being snatched from a street and bundled into a car boot.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the men "took the law into their own hands" and their actions were "nothing short of atrocious".

A force representative said the men, "without justification, believed Christopher had committed a sexual crime".

They said DNA evidence submitted in the investigation of a sexual offence did not match Mr Hughes's.

However, the men, who they said "all knew each other or were related", began a search of Wigan on 17 February, eventually going to Mr Hughes's home address and breaking in.

They said the hunt "continued the following day until Christopher was abducted in broad daylight".

He was forced into the boot of a car and driven at speed to Skelmersdale, where he was "brutally attacked and killed in act of retribution", they said.

The men later reconvened and "put a plan in place to hide Christopher's body, with a number forming a burial party", but after being disturbed by police driving to a road traffic collision, they abandoned the plan.

They went on to destroy CCTV, change telephones, delete messages and dispose of the car used in the kidnap in an effort to cover their tracks.

Mr Hughes's remains were found four days later by a person walking their dog.

A post-mortem examination found he had suffered more than 90 "sharp force injuries" to his head, neck, body and limbs, the vast majority of which were inflicted while he was still alive.

At Liverpool Crown Court:

Khalil Awla, 49, from Wigan, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 26 years
Erion Voja, 21, from London, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years
Razgar Mohammed, 41, from Wigan, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years
Alan Jaf, 52, from Wigan, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 26 years
Dean O'Neill-Davey, 30, from Wigan, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years
Erland Spahiu, 34, from Skelmersdale, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years
Martin Smith, 34, from Wigan, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 33 years
Curtis Balbas, 31, from Wigan, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 34 years
Alongside the sentences for murder, all eight were also given concurrent sentences for kidnap.

Andrius Uzkuraitis, 27, from Wigan, was also sentenced to six years in prison for assisting an offender.

Speaking after sentencing, Mr Hughes's family said they were "pleased that justice has finally been done".

"It will not bring Christopher back, but he will live on in our hearts forever and the memories of him we will hold dearly," they said.

Det Insp Heidi Cullum said the men "took the law into their own hands and murdered Christopher Hughes".

"What they did in February last year was nothing short of atrocious," she said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... r-64562886

[irie]

I doubt Zahawi actually has much to do with his tax returns, I know I have little to do with mine, the accountant askes some questions, I answer and sign at the end.

Ditto.

I always tried to understand things I signed off on...including anything the accountants and others put it front of me. Even contracts where I was told 'It's a standard contract'. In the end, your signature makes it your responsibility.

I always try to understand too, but hey, you've really put me in my place there.

[Count Steer]

Ditto.

I always tried to understand things I signed off on...including anything the accountants and others put it front of me. Even contracts where I was told 'It's a standard contract'. In the end, your signature makes it your responsibility.

I always try to understand too, but hey, you've really put me in my place there.

Did I? Oh, OK then but it was Zahawi I had in mind.