Pay your taxes!? A eBay merchant has been jailed for not having paid half a million pounds of taxes! According to a statement put out by the UK Revenues and Customs (HMRC), Gregory Allnutt, 40, from south east London has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment following an investigation that found he had evaded paying taxes to the tune of £430,000 while selling electronics through the online auction web site eBay.
Chris Martin of the tax department investigation unit said, “Allnutt thought that by trading online he could avoid paying his taxes, but he has discovered that isn’t the case. Our successful investigation and today’s sentencing send a clear message to others involved in such crime that our investigators will identify and pursue you. Tax fraud costs millions of pounds in lost revenue in the UK each year, money that could be used to fund vital public services.”
When his home was raided in June, Allnut was found to have been carrying out tax fraud since 2007 by using a VAT registration number to obtain zero rated goods from suppliers in the European Union and then selling them on without declaring the transactions to HMRC. Allnutt pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud on 1 November and was sentenced today.
He must have had a great eBay business going to rack up that kind of tax!
via Source.