Kerry Katona "facing Bankrupty For 3Rd Time"

[Frank Hovis]

MmmmmmmmmmOK.....so the answer then seems to be that once forced into bankruptcy by HMRC, and subsequently discharged from it a few years later at most, that HMRC can not continue to claim for any tax that still remained unpaid after the estate/assets were sold off. In other words a genuinely new blank sheet for the individual - to do it all over again

As for 'fraud'....well that's a grey area isn't it?

Suppose someone privately in their mind decides one day (perhaps even after reading about Katona or someone like her) that they will live the high life, not pay any tax for as long as they can and then when judgement day comes simply throw themselves at the mercy of the court and plead stupidity and expect t' 'get away with it'. In my mind that is deliberate tax evasion. Of course how can you prove the original intentions of the person?

I guess then that 'fraud' is where some shrewd hard nosed businessman calculatingly squirrels away money over time with the intent to enjoy it later on at some point? Whereas someone like Katona who fritters it away in the here and now is just treated as stupid?

IF I was going to commit tax fraud I know I would choose the latter route everytime.

Whatever happened to 'ignorance of the law is no excuse' and all that jazz?

Maybe she has a huge hoard of sovereigns buried under a metal water pipe in her back lawn and all this frittering it away and looking daft is just an act?

Maybe not though.

[anonguest]

Maybe she has a huge hoard of sovereigns buried under a metal water pipe in her back lawn and all this frittering it away and looking daft is just an act?

Maybe not though.

Yep. Shes too dozy to do that.

BUT you're absolutely right in principle. That is what i was driving at. One lives the high life, squirrels away as much as one can, then plead dopiness, 'suffer' the inconvenience of bankruptcy for a year or so and then start the process all over again.

End result that one could go through a large portion of ones life enjoying it pretty well and paying a mere fraction, or even nothing, of the tax they should.

Think about it. I bet I would enjoy life significantly better IF I suddenly found that may income was 40% higher (i.e no tax deducted). I'd be able to buy things I cant afford now, go travelling to places I can only dream of, etc.

Hmmmmmmmm........

Edited February 3, 2014 by anonguest

[Frank Hovis]

Yep. Shes too dozy to do that.

BUT you're absolutely right in principle. That is what i was driving at. One lives the high life, squirrels away as much as one can, then plead dopiness, 'suffer' the inconvenience of bankruptcy for a year or so and then start the process all over again.

End result that one could go through a large portion of ones life enjoying it pretty well and paying a mere fraction, or even nothing, of the tax they should. Hmmmmmmmm........

Some have said on here that a good idea, having first bought a house (ok, big hurdle but a necessary one), then start apparently living well beyond your means whilst in actuality finding some invisible store of wealth (sovereigns as good as any) so that you steadily run down your apparent wealth and start becoming eligible for all the means-tested benefits to pick up once you stop working whilst still having (and being able to spend) untraceable money.

I can't see the flaw if done in a discreet manner.

[anonguest]

Some have said on here that a good idea, having first bought a house (ok, big hurdle but a necessary one), then start apparently living well beyond your means whilst in actuality finding some invisible store of wealth (sovereigns as good as any) so that you steadily run down your apparent wealth and start becoming eligible for all the means-tested benefits to pick up once you stop working whilst still having (and being able to spend) untraceable money.

I can't see the flaw if done in a discreet manner.

Agreed. It is very tempting. BUT.....

The 'discreet' bit is key. Many supposedly clever criminals get caught simply through greed (e.g those who originated the skimming 0.0001p off millions of bank accounts scam eventually got caught when the fraction they skimmed became too large and so drew attention to the scam. If they had been content with a modest amount they would likley have got away with it for ever?).

Similarly many will not have the self-discipline to control their spending after claiming poverty.

Edited February 3, 2014 by anonguest

[Kurt Barlow]

You forgot the 'gain 3 stone\ lose 2 stone \ sell a fitness CD \ rinse and repeat' meme.

Nah - been done to death. She needs a new angle. Porno - some dude eating greasy Iceland party food off Kerry's private parts

[Kurt Barlow]

Damn, Macbeth... I can never scrub that image from my eyes!

I bet you would still pump her though after a few beers

[Qetesuesi]

+1

Time to bring serious consequences for feckless people who shamelessly exploit bankruptcy. It's just too easy to do this repeatedly and it is the rest of us who end up paying for it.

+1. Plus it's been going on for centuries. I like the way John Bunyan puts it -

WISE. I will tell you; it was this, he had an art to break, and get hatfuls of money by breaking [going bankrupt].

ATTEN. But what do you mean by Mr. Badman's breaking? You speak mystically, do you not?

WISE. No, no, I speak plainly. Or, if you will have it in plainer language, it is this....

...

ATTEN. And did he do thus indeed?

WISE. Yes, once and again. I think he brake twice or thrice.

ATTEN. And did he do it before he had need to do it?

WISE. Need! What do you mean by need? There is no need at any time for a man to play the knave. He did it of a wicked mind, to defraud and beguile his creditors. He had wherewithal of his father, and also by his wife, to have lived upon, with lawful labour, like an honest man. He had also, when he made this wicked break, though he had been a profuse and prodigal spender, to have paid his creditors their own to a farthing. But had he done so, he had not done like himself, like Mr. Badman; had he, I say, dealt like an honest man, he had then gone out of Mr. Badman's road. He did it therefore of a dishonest mind, and to a wicked end; to wit, that he might have wherewithal, howsoever unlawfully gotten, to follow his cups and queans,[44] and to live in the full swing of his lusts, even as he did before.

ATTEN. Why this was a mere cheat.

WISE. It was a cheat indeed. This way of breaking, it is nothing else but a more neat way of thieving, of picking of pockets, of breaking open of shops, and of taking from men what one has nothing to do with. But though it seem easy, it is hard to learn; no man that has conscience to God or man, can ever be his crafts-master in this hellish art.

ATTEN. O! Sir! What a wicked man was this!

WISE. A wicked man indeed. By this art he could tell how to make men send their goods to his shop, and then be glad to take a penny for that which he had promised, before it came thither, to give them a groat: I say, he could make them glad to take a crown for a pound's worth, and a thousand for that for which he had promised before to give them four thousand pounds.

ATTEN. This argueth that Mr. Badman had but little conscience.

WISE. This argued that Mr. Badman had no conscience at all; for conscience, the least spark of a good conscience, cannot endure this.

("The Life and Death of Mr Badman")