If you don't pay the rent or local taxes it doesn't matter how expensive it would be if you did!Quote:
Originally Posted by danhibees1875
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If you don't pay the rent or local taxes it doesn't matter how expensive it would be if you did!Quote:
Originally Posted by danhibees1875
Why wouldn't they be doing those things?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack
It's the American sweetie shop types I was referring to and some others are at it too.Quote:
Originally Posted by danhibees1875
They set up a fairly basic shop and then after all the final demands for payment have reached a climax, or the utilities are cut off, they disappear and turn up in a different location but the same outfit really. If you know what I mean.
Generally government types of payments because they take longest to be chased up.
Be assured the police are not daft, I watched 24 hours in police custody on Monday night, it was about 20 people escaping from a detention centre, they were waiting to be returned back to the country they came from, most had served time for cultivating cannabis, I think 14 were caught that night but the rest got away and were picked up by some Albanian guy, the police started to raid cannabis farms down South and a few I think were told to hand themselves into custody to take the heat off, eventually the main guy who escaped was caught in a house with a staggering amount of drugs and cash, it did seem though that the police do know about these weed farms but maybe don’t do nothing about them until they need to.Quote:
Originally Posted by CropleyWasGod
Happens all the time with Independent grocery stores. Don’t pay a few things, like rates and a few utilities, then set up the business under another company name, but same peopleQuote:
Originally Posted by Jack
Happens more often than you think and not just grocery stores. Some well know Edinburgh businesses too!Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Whizz
Kind of related to all of this, I've noticed a few times when ordering a takeaway on the likes of Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc. that all of a sudden a new takeaway will pop up.
Excited that there is a new place open, I look at the address given on the app and google it. Google returns an existing establishment but of the same type of cuisine. So you would assume, they've closed down and someone has moved in or perhaps they've re-branded. Perhaps they are one of these 'ghost' or 'virtual' restaurants that rent space from an existing restaurant/take-away to cut overheads. Except you then realise that the original place is also on the same app with the same menu as the 'new' place. You drive past the address and it is still the original branding.
I'm convinced its a tax dodge, most likely VAT. Channel sales through multiple different businesses to keep turnover below the VAT-registration threshold.
On a related note, my wife when we were early dating really wanted to take me to her favourite Indian restaurant at her end of town. I realised the menu was suspiciously like the menu that one of my favourite Indian restaurants at my end of town. A lot of dishes that I hadn't seen elsewhere other than 'my' place were on this menu. A quick Google showed it was exactly the same menu. Assumed it must be the same owners even although the names of the places were different. So I asked the boss man if they were the same people. He looked absolutely petrified and started mumbling. Eventually said "similar families own both restaurants... distant relatives". He was really spooked by me asking this and I assumed he thought I was a HMRC Inspector. However, a year or so later one of them got raided by the Immigration Authorities. I suspect that might have been the reason for him getting spooked at my perfectly innocent question.
Bagel woman being a high profile recent example.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouse Hibee
I know it does, and I know of people who make a living out of this, advising companies, take a % of the savingsQuote:
Originally Posted by Scouse Hibee
It's not a dodge, it's illegal :greengrin HMRC are quite hot on this, but they often do need "intelligence" to act.Quote:
Originally Posted by overdrive
I was expecting the Hearts creditors list to make an appearance shortly after this post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouse Hibee
Oh I know. Was using 'dodge' a bit flippantly. My father-in-law is a retired HMRC manager. He has some stories about the part of his career investigating these sorts of places. Think he got a good few meals out of it too under the guise of checking how busy places were :greengrinQuote:
Originally Posted by CropleyWasGod
:greengrinQuote:
Originally Posted by overdrive
Yeah forgot about her. Read she was wanting to make a third comeback despite going in to administration twice and skipping out on loads of debt and tax.Quote:
Originally Posted by overdrive
I think it's cute that people think the authorities would stop this. Probably like when the police show a picture of seized gear saying they were cracking down on dealing, sound
The 24 hour arcade/casino on Shandwick Place and Nicholson Street must come under the dodgy category too? I sometimes have a peek in when I'm wandering by and most times the places are empty apart from staff, never seen either busy
A 24hr laundry facility? I think it's just machines as well so go in with a few hundred quid and play a game for a £1 and "cash out".Quote:
Originally Posted by BS44
Would that not just get you your cash back?Quote:
Originally Posted by jamie_1875
Different cash to what you took in though?Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts
It’s not just money laundering. It’s for immigration reasons too.
We used to go to a kebab shop for years in town. Every 2-3 months there would be 3-4 new staff arrive and the old ones would move on. It usually was cousins or so they said.
Similarly I’ve been going to a barber now for 6 years. Again every month a new barber appears who can’t cut hair or speak English. He sweeps the floor, learns how to cut hair and eventually he gets basic phrases and does basic haircuts.
I know for a fact there is one main guy who opens barbershops and gets staff in. He also has flats so they pay him rent for the flat and rent for working in the barbers.
Whether it’s smuggling gangs offering a semi professional life in Britain service or genuinely family members coming to join other family, immigration is definitely a big part of it.
Mentioned it earlier in the thread. Very common or certainly was a few years back.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts
Walk in with a wad, put it all in the machine, play one spin then cash out. Ask for a receipt for the winnings and if the polis ask why you have £499 in cash on your person you can show them the receipt for your 'winnings'.
Tbh I think these 24/7 slots places make plenty legit money too. Those FOBTs are a license to print money hence why the bookies opened all kinds of new bricks and mortar shops to get around the 4 per shop limit. They fought increased regulation tooth and nail, legislation that aimed to erase the ability to lose £100 a minute among other things. When the £2 a spin limit was implemented all these new shops started to close one by one. The slots places don't have the same limits on number of machines so are still more than viable.
That makes more sense with the receipt side of things :agree:Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretty Boy
Was reminded of this thread last night, when I went to a chippy not far from where I live. There’s a wee cluster of shops - chip shop, Co-op, Chinese takeaway, a hairdressers (which usually does have people in getting their hair done during the day), and… an American style sweet shop, which was still open at the back of 9 last night when I went past!
I’d add car washes to this group.
To be honest we have used a few of them and they have all done a cracking jobQuote:
Originally Posted by Chuck Rhoades
Britains productivity problem in a nutshell. We used to have machines that did this.[emoji2369]Quote:
Originally Posted by Bridge hibs
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Try finding a car wash that isnt broken or faulty, at least the guys doing it manually dont break downQuote:
Originally Posted by Ozyhibby
I agree they have taken over now but we used to have lots of working machines to do that job.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bridge hibs
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This is an interesting read. Where I live in North London there has been a massive influx of Turkish barbers. I mean loads of them. Started about 10 years ago, within about 6 months there were about 8-10 in a small square mile radius.
One of them is opposite the car wash I use. Open from 7.30 in the mornings until late at night, 8 on Sunday mornings. Sign in the window saying cash only, and they offer gift vouchers!
I know someone who has recently retired form a very senior position in HMRC. They are well aware of these cash businesses opening up, it's just a matter of picking their battles and tying them into more serious, high level crime.
Whats behind the noticeable increase in folks zooming about in e-bikes for Deliveroo and Just Eat?
is that an immigration dodge - genuine question I’m not anti immigrant - my wife is one.
Quicker than peddling and probably a more efficient way to get around the city would be my guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viva_Palmeiras
I've seen a couple of places in Leith now renting these bikes on a weekly basis with queues of food delivery types outside. I'm not suggesting they're hiring bikes with the delivery on their backs, they are probably complaining about something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viva_Palmeiras
On Facebook, I follow a few police pages, there's regular threads with food delivery drivers; immigration, bike doctored to go faster or without pedaling, speeding, various other traffic offences. Sharing deliveroo etc accounts. Some in Edinburgh too!
Food delivery is just a **** job now that not many people want to do unless they are desperate. I done it for a while for pocket money many years ago and back then when you worked for a take away direct the money could be quite decent and most people still paid in cash so the tips were good as well. I could easily clear £100-150 on a Saturday night for 5 hours work. Now with so many places using drivers or riders from the the likes of those mentioned in your post the going rate is rubbish most of the time. You have to put in serious hours to make any kind of money and employment rights are minimal. I know some will argue the flexibility suits for those wanting causal work on the side but for the most part it's long hours, unsociable hours, potentially high risk and very low reward. The e-bikes probably increase earning potential quite a bit in that you can cram more jobs into any given timeframe. It's a bit like care work in that the workforce is dominated by immigrants because of the awful pay and conditions. My granddad had carers going in daily until fairly recently and every single person we saw was from Africa or the Indian subcontinent. Talking to them they were often very bright people just taking anything they could get to try to make ends meet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viva_Palmeiras
I'm torn on the whole thing. On the one hand I tip my hat to these people being willing to work such jobs, certainly the latter is essential. It flies in the face of the 'lazy and just here for the benefits' stereotype. On the other hand it's appalling that we have this 'underclass' doing genuinely hard work for a pittance. I saw a carer job advertised the other say for £12.79 an hour. WTF? Surely no one thinks that is acceptable? We have backed ourselves into a terrible corner in the UK though in that we have become a low wage economy in the last 15-20 years and once you get into that cycle it becomes hard to break it.
I only get £81p/w as a 24/7 carer, so that seems decent. :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretty Boy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3677xzk56no
2 of the 3 mentioned in the thread title in the headline.
High street barbers pulling on over £1m a year 😂. If they were sensible about their money laundering you would surely make it less obvious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Smartie