kevinjohnsonmbe

I had to look “usurious” up 😂 Never has been, never will be any such thing as a free lunch.

I’m looking at similar kit at moment too. Already running a stand alone upright splitter with 3pl brackets but I run it off a hyd pp. From memory, Mick Dempsey put some thoughts forward on the subject in a different thread a while back and they’ve stuck with me - if you tie your splitter / processor to your Avant/MultiOne, (a) you lose the availability of the machine for lifting / loading / moving and (b) you potentially whack a load of hours on the machine. Looking at the Jappa 305 at mo. Plenty of vids on YouTube - even 1 with it being operated on an Avant (I think that is the company “Reach it, Move it, Lift if” or something similar. My conclusion thus far, unless I do a lot more log work, I probably can’t justify the outlay v return. I may see if I can have a week hire of someone else’s 305. Hire cost + transport worthwhile, <10k purchase outright, at the moment prob’s not viable. Hyd 305 run off MO 4K cheaper, but brings the issues mentioned above.

It certainly wasn’t from HMRC K 😂😂😂

Tou might want to check with your accountant and maybe avoid public statements that would give HMRC a reason to have a look at your books. Expenses if you're self-employed: Training courses - GOV.UK WWW.GOV.UK Business expenses you can claim if you're self-employed BIM35660 - Business Income Manual - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK WWW.GOV.UK Supplementary guidance on how to check tax calculations or work out the trading profits of a business for Self... If you take the supplementary guidance and then overlay current ‘industry guidance’ for refresher training of existing tickets - which may be achieved by attending then next ‘stage’ course (small tree felling refreshed by attending a med tree felling course, for a simple example), it gets even more complicated. What part is refresher and what part is new skill? 50/50, 40/60?

I could however indulge in that age old AT tradition of going wildly off topic (and maybe even draw @trigger_andy into some proxy handbaggery on the UBI topic....😜) They tax you on what you earn, they tax you on what you spend, they tax you on what you save and they tax you on what’s left when you die. Maybe it’s just sex and drugs that aren’t taxed and they both have significant potential complications involved anyway. Within each level and category of tax there are seemingly impenetrable layers of regulation, interpretation and implementation. And the cherry on top is that it is all necessary to sustain and perpetuate the massive Ponzi scheme of ‘government spending’ which demands exponential increase in the consumption of finite resources - at some point it must all come crashing down. Just like the massive Beech which has started throwing limbs that I looked at yesterday. It could be left well alone to carry on and ‘do its thing’ or it could have some well considered intervention to avoid disaster. Not sure if I can link Masonic lodges into the thread - that’s a masterpiece there K 😂

And getting the ticket is not deductible.... If I can’t claim it on a tax return I ain’t doing it 😂

Like a Vindaloo but a bit otter?? 😂😂😂😂

Year 23 starts today 🤣

You're absolutely right on a subject that many seem to struggle to accept there Dan - new skill is not an allowable expense for tax whereas a mandatory training cert such as H&S, FA & refresher training is. I'm sure this very subject has been covered (with handbags) previously where many argued that they DID include new skills training in their tax return and it's just like the accrual of non monetary benefits handbagery from previous, there's a difference between what people DO and what they will be told they SHOULDN'T have done in the event they are collared by HMRC. 🥔

The mashed potato incident is a good one for referencing ‘flash to bang’ in our house. I am well known for having a particularly slow burn, long tolerance, happy to chug along without mention of a grumble type character which is starkly contrasted by a rare but unpredictable instantaneous flash to bang when the final tolerance is breached. This once (that’s right, ONCE but never to be forgotten and recounted at any suitable or even wildly tangential opportunity by Mrs J) manifest itself in a pan of mashed potatoes being launched across the kitchen then pounced upon and stomped into the originally desired consistency. Nothing to do with the potatoes of course, it’s just that the inefficiency of the mashing implement was ‘the final straw’ in a chain of events that can’t even be remembered. Hence I am destined always to be chided by the wife recounting the “mashed potato incident” whenever she senses the dial moving towards the emergency relief valve.

I wouldn’t pretend to know enough about the subject to attempt to present a credible arugument one way or the other but I was personally struck by the significance of what chummy was saying on wireless yesterday - if he knew his onions - and then somewhat surprised / disappointed that the show host didn’t seem to grasp the significance and gravity of what he was saying - if he knew his onions. And - if he knew his onions - it begs the question WHY PHE, via their various LA inspection and enforcement teams (significantly augmented from other departments during COVID), or any other government’official’ or advisor have made no mention (so far as I’ve heard) of the significance of air quality management?? Strikes me as odd.

Yes that was (and still is) my method OSM. Dyson thingy (much to @Khriss ‘s displeasure 😂)

Don’t worry about sounding abrasive mate, no issue with that. You crack on as you see fit. What I reflect upon as an ‘interesting episode’ is not presented merely as conjecture of a worst case scenario, it’s not the art of the possible, it’s a real lived experience. You sound like you’ve got it all under control and keeping it well under the radar so no need to worry 😜 👍🏻

Bit off topic but there was an interesting caller to Ian Dale show earlier on LBC. He was a laid off commercial aircon engineer. As he told it, bored with no work on and ‘troubled’ by the reports of supermarkets being super conductors of C19, and ‘people’ not adhering to preventative measures, he decided to take his air quality monitoring equipment to the supermarket. What he said he found after measurements in various big name stores was that all bar 1 was wildly off what the government (?) air quality / moisture levels ‘should’ be. Apparently, such standards are published and available online (?) I found it interesting (whilst having no idea if he was talking bullox or not) because (a) who even knew supermarket air quality was a ‘thing’ and (b) if it is, maybe the whole approach to C19 preventative measures is being mis sold as individual responsibility whereas corporate responsibility may be slipping the leash? Apol’s for going off piste but thought you might be interested or have a view on it 🧐

It doesn’t happen quickly, it starts quickly and then the bully boy intimidation tactics kick in. They last a long time and (I suspect usually bear fruit) you have to seek to get HMRC ‘decisions’ internally reviewed, then appeal, then apply for Tribunal. It is agonisingly slow and tedious and they bombard you with scatter-gun requests for information and so it continues until either your accountancy fees exceed your tolerance threshold or you lose the will to fight. They picked the wrong cowboy when my number came up. I’ve got endless enthusiasm for a scrap with offialdom and I had the time, will and resources to do it myself. It’s not a course of action Id recommend though - hence just saying “beware” of what can happen.

I was full time employed elsewhere too - my scenario started very similarly to what the OP presents. I moved house, 4 fireplaces to be fed, started picking up wood and taking down trees to feed the fire. It doesn't take long to move from a borrowed chainsaw to running a business. 😖 The trigger costs for investigation for HMRC were peanuts, but it escalated into a 4 year battle ending up in the RCJ. All I'm saying bud, is it can happen, and for me it did! It was a useful learning curve though and, like your mate, I'm watertight on tax affairs now. I don't miss a single penny that can be claimed 😂

page 5/6 gives a summary http://www.fieldtax.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/February-2016-Tax-Bulletin.pdf The issue arose because HMRC didn't want to 'allow' capital and operational expenses in 2010/11 & 11/12 because they tipped the business from profit into loss and their contention was that a business trading at a loss could not be viable and therefore unable to claim AIA etc. (I rather doubt there's a single farm business that could demonstrate profitability without subsidy - but that's a whole other story!) In the end, it all came down to the accrual of arb arisings (non monetary goods received must be taken to account at their market value on the day of receipt) which is taxable rather than the value of the goods after they have been processed and made available for sale (processing and seasoning in this case.) It was a barrel of laughs and a great insight to how HMRC works. My absolute favourite part was the Lower Tier Tribunal - on arrival, Clerk asked are there any admin issues you need to make the judge aware of... I simply said I'd need to renew the parking ticket at 13:00. No problem says the Clerk, we'll break for lunch around then anyway. Johnny from HMRC chips in - "there's an all day multi story carpark right opposite, why don't you use that?" "Because the Landrover 110 utility we're about to argue about in relation to AIA won't fit under the barrier" (you ****************ing chimp I muttered under my breath.) HMRC were invited to lay out their case. After much fumbling and confusion a 10 minute summary was presented to the judge by HMRC. Then it was my turn! About 4 hours later having delivered a killer presentation, all from memory, and answered all the questions from the bench we broke for lunch. On return from lunch it was HMRCs turn to offer any rebuttals of my evidence, and mine of theirs. HMRC blushed and farted and didn't have much to offer... Judge asked me if I'd sorted the car park, I replied "Yes, thank you Sir, I've put another 4 hours on the meter" It probably loses it in the telling, but both myself and the judges genuinely laughed out loud 😂 That was the Lower Tier Tribunal, the Upper Tier was a bit more dramatic but that's a story for another day... 😂😂

I'll see if I can dig out the Court papers

The trouble is Paddy, you (like the vast majority of the human race) are viewing it through the lens of common sense and reasonableness.... HMRC don't have those glasses. Of course you're right, kept on the low-down most unlikely to to ever be a problem - but it has greater potential 'issues' for a company that might be interpreted as engaging someone on such terms. I'm as happy as you to say it would be unlikely - all I'm saying is, from the position of a man that HAS stood in the RCJ with a piece of yesterdays cut green wood in one hand and a 2 year air dried piece in the other it can happen and it's a barrel of laughs when it does (I do mean that actually, I really enjoyed making sure HMRC had costs far in excess of any recovery - but I am an exceptionally stubborn bar steward at the best of times 😂)

Might sound daft but I speak from the position of experience of having firmly locked horns (and for the most part - pulled their pants down) with HMRC on the subject of goods in lieu of payment. It’s a well trodden path and supported by fairly extensive legal precedent. Worst case scenario - both yourself (in the form of acquiring goods) AND the person / outfit benefitting from your labour ought to be aware of the potential requirements to declare non monetary benefits accrued to HMRC. Don’t shoot the messenger! Just saying what “should” happen. 😂😂😂 Scale / value / profile are all relevant. Keep it low key under the radar probably quite low risk..... Here it comes....... But 😆 Imagine the scenario where a person / outfit gets an HMRC investigation. In the course of investigation it comes to light that a casual labourer is engaged for general ground tasks.... Not inconceivable. Where are the PAYE files or Labour only invoices? What there ain’t none? Well how are they paid? They take wood. Ah, what is the value of the wood? ...... and the next thing you know you’re in the Royal Courts of Justice trying to explain to the Tribunal judge the difference in “value” of green Arb arisings as distinct from split, stacked, seasoned, delivered firewood. Just a precautionary tale on a rainy lunchtime whilst watching PMQs 😂😂 That aside, get on and do the CS30/31. You’ll love it and it will make YOU safer and more efficient regardless of how you use the new skills. It’s a couple hundred squid or so? Treat yourself and call it a holiday / break / personal development whatever 👍🏻

They're not walking boots Sam, they're climbing / work boots - very different animals by design and intent. If you try and compare them with previous walking boots you will surely be disappointed. Conversely, try climbing / gaffs with them and you (should) be delighted...

and O licence

😂🤣😂

That’s what I’m talking about 😂😂😂😂😂