Following quickly on from HMRC’s recent release of taxpayers’ weird and wonderful excuses as to why they were late submitting their Tax Returns by the 31st January deadline, they’ve now published a list of the oddest expense claims by taxpayers.
Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Director General of customer services commented: “Each year we receive a huge variety of expense claims by taxpayers in an attempt to reduce the amount of tax they should pay and quite frankly many of them are so absurd as to be laughable. It is unfair to make honest taxpayers pick up the bill for other people’s spurious claims, so HMRC will only accept sincere claims such as legitimate expenses for a job,” she said.
So In addition to this year’s Roswell-inspired tax return excuses released 10 days ago, HMRC have now released some of the weirdest expense claims they’ve received, all of which failed. The rejected excuses cover a huge range, from vet fees for a rabbit to sausages; here is the best of the bunch:
A three-piece suite for my partner to sit on when I’m doing my accounts
My birthday party and drinks at a Glasgow nightclub
Tax Relief On Stress Relief
Vet fees for a rabbit (claimed for on the grounds that stroking the rabbit relieved stress)
Hotel room service – for candles and prosecco (another stress relieving excuse)
Gentlemen’s top-shelf magazines (yet another stress relieving excuse)
A blow up doll from a well-known adult shop (ostensibly to demonstrate first aid to the sole employee)
A kilo of sausages per week for 50 weeks (this was builder who claimed they built up his strength)
A new house (as one of the bedroom’s was used as an office to run a business from)
A film director claims for his wife’s hairdressing and beauty salon treatments (apparently she had to look her best at all times)
A Superman fancy dress suit (allegedly to reward the best sales person of the month)
And finally, my personal favourite from the list of failed excuses is:
A claim for a breast enhancement for a taxpayer’s wife
(he ran a plastic surgery clinic and claimed his wife’s new breasts as advertising costs)
In this case I do think the Inspector was a little harsh in not allowing the claim, in his letter of rejection the Inspector stated that HMRC always disallowed artificial claims. Thinking about it, as the offending items were made from silicon, I suppose he had a point!
If you would like more detailed information on some aspect of UK Tax, send me an e-mail and I’ll be pleased to advise further.
[facebook]
[retweet]
