Snowflake Challenge 4: an excuse for a linkpost

[dolorosa_12]

snowflake_challenge prompt 4 asks the following:

Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

Given that the last non-work website that I looked at was a somewhat grim political podcast, I'm going to reinterpret this as an opportunity to link a weird and wonderful piece of longform journalism that I've had bookmarked for a while: The snail farm don: is this the most brazen tax avoidance scheme of all time?

The title doesn't do it justice, and neither does my summary: a septugenarian who made his money in his family's shoe-selling business empire in the north of England, and has decades-long associations with the mafia in Naples (including hiding mafia members on the run in his properties in the UK) has for the past several years invested most of his time and energy in exploiting an elaborate UK tax loophole by which — if you claim to be running a snail farm on your property (including in residential blocks of flats or office buildings) — you pay no tax. In his telling, he's doing this purely to pass the time and keep his mind active in his later years. It's a wild ride.

This kind of written long-form journalism, essay or interview — with left-field subject matter and larger-than-life personalities — is my absolutely favourite type of nonfiction.

Comments

[schneefink]

That is. Wow. A wild ride and great read for sure. How the hell does he get away with it? The concept of landlords paying tenants is strange enough but his is just very blatant and admitted tax avoidance - enforcement must be very toothless in the UK in that regard, it seems...

[dolorosa_12]

I know, right? I imagine it's something they just never anticipated people would attempt, and so legislation or even enforcement hasn't really caught up.

[hamsterwoman]

As someone currently experiencing a surplus of snails, I clicked on that link so fast! Still reading, but wow, a wild ride so far! (Also, I immediately snickered at "shell company" in the intro section :D)

[dolorosa_12]

I'm not sure it's good advice in terms of dealing with your snail surplus ... but a fun read indeed.

Also, I immediately snickered at "shell company" in the intro section :D

The journalist was clearly having a great time!

[chestnut_pod]

This I have GOT to read. What caused this loophole?? About to find out!

[dolorosa_12]

It's such a bonkers story!

[merit]

What an interesting loophole. It seems like it could be easily closed but I guess there's many other things to focus on... as I have been previously told that unless it was 'critical' the legislative calendar was full for the next few years.

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, I imagine it's the sort of loophole that no one ever imagined anyone would be mad enough to try to exploit, so there was no sense of urgency in legislating it away. I wonder if anything will change since the article's been published.