liklehood of going to jail ??

[dvldvl2222]

if i have previous undeclared earnings of £250,000 and the tax man is now investigating me, and i have no way of paying the back tax/penalties, and must declare myself bankrupt or go through insolvency - what is the likelhood of going to jail? and what sort of time period in jail?

i sometimes see celebrities/pop singers with big tax debts of millions making themselves bankrupt and they dont go to jail...

apart from making yourself bankrupt, is it possible to pay the taxman over a longer period of time, - say 25 years ??

[daveagle]

am i right in assuming that these are earnings that were not declared at the time and are only coming to light now that I.R. is investigating your case?

by law, if you declare yourself bankrupt, all creditors are not permitted to make any contact you whatsoever but must contact the offical receiver-if you are chased by any creditor, you can have them for harrassment-however, i do not know if I.R. is included within this category-someone else here will be able to assist you with regards to this point.

in respect of jail time, i do not know- i would suggest taking legal advice urgently

paying the taxman over a long period-from what i understand, if it is their error, i believe that they would take a lenient view but 25 years is being very optimistic if not unrealistic-if you are at fault, well, someone else here will be able to fill you in with the details

dave
daveagle2000@yahoo.co.uk

[Simon Sweetman]

Jail is very unlikely if you co-operate fully. It sounds as though you have not taken professional advice on this. It is absolutely necessary that you do, and soon.

You can phone me on 01394 274857 if you wish to discuss this.

Simon Sweetman

[Peter D]

Bankruptcy leads to many very restrictive penalties on credit rating, morgage availability all sorts of things. A loan may be a way for you and with agreement with IR thay may allow 3 to 5 years to spead the payments so you make 3 loans over the period thus keeping the payment dow. Before you ask, No the interest on the loan is not tax deductable. You need some professional help NOW. Regards Peter

[tax me less!]

Do bear in mind that ANY tax adviser you contact will AUTOMATICALLY report your existence to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, because there will be a suspicion that you have been living off the proceeds of crime. Consequently I suggest that you also instruct a solicitor to represent you.

[dvldvl2222]

surely they will have to inform you of this before they report you the nat criminal intelligence service, otherwise you can sue them for breach of trust/data protection act.

the proceeds are not from crime at all, so nothing to worry about there in any case.

[daveagle]

i believe that the key word here is "suspicion"-if tax has not been paid on such a large amount, there will be a suspicion that criminal activities are involved and therefore I.R. can proceed as they see fit

as previously advised, you need legal advice/solicitor urgently

[dvldvl2222]

i think you guys are thinking that this is something its not.

basically the money is from a few property sales which were not my primary residence.

[wamstax]

Hi dv... yes possibly you might see one or two comments getting a bit heavy. However factually "tax evasion" falls under the term Proceeds of Crime and it is unlawful for anybody to warn you that they are advising NCIS.

Basically putting yourself in bankruptcy court isn't necessarily a wise move because you should subsequently be under scrutiny by your supervisor.

There is an old saying "that you can't get blood out of a stone" and really you need professional help to see how far the HMR&C will go in considering how much you have to pay and over waht period. Usually this would be up to 5 years at the outset as anything longer will inevitably have a greater risk of the contract not being honoured. As I say you need professional help a.s.a.p. Regards Bill