Diehard Guardian readers may have missed this rather entertaining story from the Daily Telegraph, itself snipped mostly from Accountingweb, which does roughly what it says on the tin.
It seems a self-employed farrier owes £25K or more in back tax, then there will be the interest and late payment costs. He's decided he'd rather go bankrupt than pay the bill. There are all sorts of ramifications, the odd thing being that they apply more to his accountant than to him - he's being honest and saying he owes the money, the rationale runs, so he's untouchable (according to some of the commentators on the site - I'm not a lawyer or accountant and wouldn't pretend to know).
Nice though it might feel to get one over on the tax man, I'd have to say on this occasion I wouldn't even be tempted. Bankruptcy is an inevitability if your finances have truly spiralled beyond your control, but deliberate spending of tax money you knew you owed is of a different magnitude. And hey, if this blog makes me rich enough I may one day want a new mortgage...
