How the tax collectors "support businesses",
The tax gap is the difference between the tax that in theory should be collected by HMRC, a figure pulled out of the arse of some civil servant to prove that not everybody is paying their taxes and thereby justify their own existence and petty empires, and the amount that is actually collected.
ahhhh yes, how the tax collectors "support businesses", I got a letter from my local tax inspector some years ago telling me that they were going to visit me to see how they could help my business start up.
What followed was a 40 minute meeting, with a minor civil servant telling me what I couldn't claim for and I rapidly came to the conclusion that the only reason to have the meeting was so that the minor civil servant could claim mileage and some per diems.
“So” said the tax inspector at the end of the meeting “do you have any questions?”.
“Yes” I replied, “only one”.
“Why is it that if was an employee of a bank and had a preferential rate bank loan I have to pay 'benefit in kind' of the difference between the preferential rate and the commercial rate, do civil servants have to do the same with their pensions?”
The minor civil servant then terminated the meeting.
I had a full tax audit that year, but I also had a good accountant so the audit was a bit of a waste really.