Fair enough on the complexity side of things. Maybe with Burnhams latest comment he’ll give some more resources to people investigating this type of operation.
On the “why do I use them” question.
Convenience. I am lazy.
Number of barbershops in Britain increases by 500% in 10 years
- Thread starter altodevil
- Start date
On the “why do I use them” question.
Convenience. I am lazy.
You're over complicating it a bit too much. HMRC knows what a typical active barber shop consumes. If a unit's energy profile matches an open, fully operational business, but they declare a tax return that says it's a dead venue, then their system would flag a variance. That triggers the investigation, they don't sit there with a spreadsheet and work out kwh's vs skin fades.
If they started using AI banners we could call them Bairberslops
Good call! I don't live in Nottingham anymore but it seems like Intu going kaboom set the Broadmarsh back majorly. There were a few other retail units down that way - Boots and Holland/Barrett iirc - but they closed up, presumably due to lack of footfall. They've now made it into a sort of inner-city green area and only recently got businesses to move into the units opposite the bus station. There's an Irish pub down there that seems to do good trade (and craic).
Barbers used to be cool that they appeared in Craig David music video. Hero climb and save baby. Hero climb and save baby. Now its all money laundering. Some corrupt mafia asked for a bowl cut and paid 1 million cash.
Yes, and the variations between a busy barber shop open 9-5 and doing 20 cuts a day with the lights and a radio on and one that is open but does 2 cuts a day with a TV on will be almost identical. There's no way of telling a legitimate barbers business from an illegitimate one by looking at their utility bills.
A shop doing 20 cuts vs 2 cuts won't have the same energy profile across 12 months, not even close to 'almost identical'. I don't believe anyone is saying that HMRC deem a legitimate or illegitimate business based off their utility bills, it's highlighting that it's one single data point to use it as a baseline indicator. Combining it with other data points (like tax returns) they have then they can draw a conclusion that something doesn't look right and deem it something to look further into.
How much energy do you think clippers and scissors use? It's an absolutely insignificant portion of an energy bill. The overwhelming bulk of a barbers utility bills will be lighting and heating.
Leaving a set of clippers plugged in and running all day would consume about 0.7kW/h of electricity. Costing about 21p.
Running three in normal usage in a busy barbers shop probably doesn't even cost as much as daily standing charge.
Having a TV on and boiling a kettle a few times would use more.
I'm sure there's no way this level of data could be used to make a case for anything. If anyone wanted to cover anything up, they'd just run a space heater for an hour or two and incur the 20p extra costs.
You make it sound like barbers are operating out of a garden shed. If you think there's no variance in running costs between a barber operating a 4,800 cuts a year and one at 480 cuts then it's probably best to leave it there otherwise we'll be going round in circles and derailing the topic, if it hasn't been already.
Let's say they operate out of the same size unit. They'll use very similar amounts of electricity. The energy/electricity cost of actually doing the haircuts is tiny, Whether it's £1 a day for clippers going around the clock, or £0.3p for doing one cut a day, the difference is still a few hundred quid.
Is that the kind of figure that would launch investigations? And if it is, do you not see how easily it would be covered up by just sticking another appliance on?
Agreed. Energy usage is…….. not the way to do it
This place opened up in my town recently
Rarely any customers in there any time I'm passing so far.
Interesting contributed piece from London Centric in the FT (paywalled).
Basically saying the dodgy shops are mainly tax wheezes, rather than money laundering fronts. Pay zero tax, so can charge cheap prices, sell on work visas and take loans out against credit card payments then feck off. Can then phoenix the business elsewhere, always paying an international student or skint person a few hundred to be named director.
HMRC underresourced and tax lost per shop fairly low, but significant in aggregate. It also hurts legit businesses who can't compete on price, destroying the high street.
https://www.ft.com/content/936c1856-a049-4d3e-be1c-7cd6269f6bcf
Basically saying the dodgy shops are mainly tax wheezes, rather than money laundering fronts. Pay zero tax, so can charge cheap prices, sell on work visas and take loans out against credit card payments then feck off. Can then phoenix the business elsewhere, always paying an international student or skint person a few hundred to be named director.
HMRC underresourced and tax lost per shop fairly low, but significant in aggregate. It also hurts legit businesses who can't compete on price, destroying the high street.
https://www.ft.com/content/936c1856-a049-4d3e-be1c-7cd6269f6bcf
Looks more like a strip club.This place opened up in my town recently
Rarely any customers in there any time I'm passing so far.
I doubt barber shops are for money laundering. I live in another country in a small city and they exploded here too. They are all on the same style, with a modern hipster look to them. I think the reason it's obvious, young men groom themselves a lot more these days, beards became ubiquitous and many of them go there once or twice per week to trim them. I rarely see someone younger than 30 with a shaved face, which were the norm here just 20 years ago.
Almost the same for tattoo parlours.
Almost the same for tattoo parlours.
Has anyone ever seen customers in any of the American Candy stores in central london?
That's what I thought, but the investigation cited in the FT article saw one take over £600 in an hour. Not huge, given tge prime locations some of these stores are based, but the profitability is boosted by the not paying tax and dodgy use of imvoice financing.
Cash heavy business have been used for money laundering since cash existed. The majority of places that still see a heavy cash influx on a high-street apart from pubs/bars and local/metro supermarkets, are off-licences, vape-shops, hairdressers/barbers etc. Pubs/bars are heavily scrutinised and Supermarkets are nationwide or global corporations so no one on a local level will be laundering money through them. So inevitably, money will end up being laundered through the businesses that remain. And people will set up business in vacant units to attempt to do so.
But that doesn't mean every new one set up is for some money laundering outfit. The demand for those type of businesses have increased exponentially. More people vape than 10 years ago. More younger men get their hair cut more often now than 10 years ago. Skin fades don't last long. So there is an increase in demand for those businesses to exist.
It is like tattoo shops that boomed a bit sooner. 15-20 years ago, you'd have a handful of reputable ones available within driving distance. Now you'll have one or two available within walking distance in any town. Spoilt for choice in a city. They don't get the repeat business a barber shop would. A skin fade haircut needs trimming every few weeks at a minimum. Weekly for some! A tattoo doesn't need that level of maintenance from a tattooist.
The one I run is just a front for my heroin concern.
Wonder if they still say.
..... anything for the weekend sir?
(A condom)
..... anything for the weekend sir?
(A condom)
There are 4 barbers within about 10 minutes walk of my house. One of them is very busy all the time with long queues pretty much any time I walk past. The other 3 are almost always empty. You'll see someone getting a cut in there once in a while but mostly the barbers are just sitting around looking at their phones, yet they've been there, open for business, for years now.
The tell tale signs are when they look panicked when you ask for a simple haircut.
And that they're putting 10k through the books each day from the 2 legit customers they have a week.
And that they're putting 10k through the books each day from the 2 legit customers they have a week.