In a message dated 27/10/2008 17:18:34 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I think your last sentence expresses "wishful thinking". Customs men are brainwashed to find naughties IMHO. If they fail, they would pretty soon become ex customs men ! Being a pedant (and an ex-HMRC employee), I can say that all Customs men are now ex-Customs men! Those that didn't stay with HM Revenue and Customs have been moved to the Border Agency. In any case, it wasn't the Customs men who were/are involved with fuel duty, it was the Excise men. ;-) Despite the public perception of authoritarianism of 'the lads' the ethos of HMC&E was very much in practical management of the revenue from Excise dues. If you were willing to co-operate and demonstrate you were willing to work with them to pay the correct amount due in a practical and reasonable way, they would be willing to help you. If you tried being clever and they got the impression you were trying to 'work the system' or fiddle the amount due then they would be less willing to help. In the case Paul mentioned, I had overlooked the part of the Briefing that said it wasn't necessary to retain evidence and I applied what I thought might be the most reasonable way of providing information, if asked, to back up the declaration of a 60/40 (or any other) split. Now Paul has highlighted the need *not* to keep evidence it very much (to my mind) confirms there are very light controls in place and there is very little interest in heavy policing of the duty that the government itself was reluctant to impose in the first place. DaveD I raise money for charity just by searching the web! www.everyclick.com is an internet search engine with a big difference - it donates half its revenues to charity, please support them too! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
