"The UK taxation system is extremely complex and it may be virtually impossible for a layperson to avoid unintentionally falling foul of it in some way. Consult your accountant, discuss your business with him and seek his advice, and don't begrudge paying him for his time, the relatively small amount it will cost may well pay you back many times over!"

"A principle and fundamental rule of the Self Assessment system is that it is the responsibility of the trader to demonstrate that his affairs are in order! It is not the responsibility of the tax inspector to demonstrate that they are not!"

"In tax disputes settled by contractual civil settlements (which is all of them almost without exception), the burden of proof is the balance of probabilities that your evidence is persuasive, that what you claim to have happened actually did happen."

"A critical, all important point is that you account for all of the money coming in and going out in a tight balanced fashion!"

"Attempts by tax inspectors to attribute the difference between the normal or average achieved by a particular industry and the actual result achieved by a business as suppressed sales should be immediately refuted."

"Tips attract a tax liability. If yours is an industry where tipping is traditional you may feel it best to arrange that tips are collected individually by staff members in cash. This is however not a straightforward situation and advice from your accountant is essential."

"The moment the tax inspector puts himself in a situation where he makes an assertion such as "I assume that the minimum level of wage is in payment" then he must be called upon to substantiate it, and demonstrate that what he has said is likely on the balance of probabilities to be true."

"The trader has a responsibility for running and "policing" his system and ensuring that the correct amount of tax and national insurance is deducted from each and every employee."

"The tax inspector knows nothing about day to day working life as we know it. He occupies a world of theory."

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with arranging your affairs so as to legally pay as little tax as you possibly can."

"Tax fraud simply isn't worth it under any circumstances. You will be caught one way or another."