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The publication of the annual ‘tax list’ in the Sunday Times, which purports to show the UK’s biggest taxpayers always intrigues and, to be honest, puzzles me. How do they know?
Anybody who has any experience of dealing with clients knows that the picture they paint in public about their financial situation can bear no relationship to their actual circumstances. I remember years ago seeing a client on one of these wealth lists when I knew that somebody in our office was producing weekly cashflows in a desperate attempt to stop his lenders making him bankrupt. I’ve also known cases where a person’s public pronouncements on tax morality have been somewhat at odds with their private tax arrangements.
A colleague recently told me about an episode of the television programme Homes under the Hammer in which one of her clients came on boasting about his property portfolio. She had been looking at his tax return the week before in the course of an enquiry and knew there was no property income on it. She had already had a conversation with the local inspector where it was clear he was firmly on their radar. ‘Oh yes we have a big thick file on him,’ was the inspector’s response.
I’ve also seen press interviews with clients where their description of their lifestyle has been totally at odds with what we knew about their finances. People do seem to be oblivious to the fact that HMRC officers will be watching the same programmes and reading the same magazines as everybody else.
Don’t believe everything you read in the press – other, of course, than in Taxation itself.
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