You may be as amazed as I was to find that Local Councils use Champdogs to get some of their information regarding litters, dogs kept, stud dogs etc.
I had a visit today from one such official who informed me that I sell dogs from my property and told me how many dogs I own and how he'd found them. He knew quite a bit about the breed from my health testing results :(

I informed him of how many breeding dogs I have in my home and he corrected me with his gleaned information.
He had ommitted to notice one was 9 years old and speyed and one had died but pretty accurate otherwise.

Watch this space!

That might catch a few out now then, those that claim benifits & breed alot!!!
...I wonder if they use websites aswell??

The information is freely available so can't see any reason why they shouldn't use it. At less they are investigating . More reason to make sure the details on any sites are kept up to date with correct information.

Do you think it could be an exhibitor jealous of your successes that's reported you out of spite?

> Do you think it could be an exhibitor jealous of your successes that's reported you out of spite

Revenue and Customs use all sorts of methods to glean information about taxpayers (or non-taxpayers) so why shouldn't local councils :) :) :)

Revenue and Customs use all sorts of methods to glean information about taxpayers (or non-taxpayers) so why shouldn't local councils :-) :-) :-)

Because I cannot see they would waste time and money on doing that UNLESS they already had a reason to suspect somebody was running a business or making lots of money. If they decided to investigate everyone who had a website or CD account or similar they'd not be able to do ANYTHING else!

Yeah & those that have nothing to hide, should have nothing to worry about!!

I think its a neighbour because we have a covered area for the dogs in case of rain before a show.
No planning asked for or granted as its just some uprights and a plastic roof........ erected in 2007
With proof of that
...so he went onto the selling of dogs etc and my numbers, litter frequency etc.

The roof is ok because of established use more than 4 years but waiting to hear about the other.
So many people are being made redundant in our council its quite strange they can spare the manpower.

Yeah & those that have nothing to hide, should have nothing to worry about!!

In an ideal world. But councils may decide that there is a limit to the number of dogs anyone may keep without registering your home for change of use as a business (whether you are losing vast amounts of money on feeding neutered pensioners or not), and then what do you do? It's happened in the past, the dog papers were full of such stories a few years ago.

> Yeah & those that have nothing to hide, should have nothing to worry about!!

Well that would be me then :)

> If they decided to investigate everyone who had a website or CD account or similar they'd not be able to do ANYTHING else

You'd be surprised what they do :)

A few years ago, the company where I worked had a routine HMRC PAYE inspection (ie checking our payroll etc). One question that I was asked was 'who cleans your windows ?' :) :) Our window cleaner was OK (I think) because he was employed by the same company that did our cleaning - but many window cleaners are self-employed.

Another case I know about was that HMRC sat at our local railway station noting down the taxis that were working that day/evening. They then compared this with the taxi drivers' records to see how accurate they were :)

Yes - they can't follow up EVERY dog for sale, for example, but they will have a 'blitz' on something like that or just on individual people to see how honest they are with their tax returns :) :) :)

He did come out with a funny question when I said I only sell, on average, ONE puppy per year..... "What do you do then...give them away...hahahahah".....Yes I do.
He gave me a funny look which either said Liar or Idiot :-) 

You'd be surprised what they do :-)

A few years ago, the company where I worked had a routine HMRC PAYE inspection (ie checking our payroll etc).

We're talking about local councils......

I am very well aware of how the Inland Revenue work as Ive seen it first hand.
They infiltrate potential money making groups and I was told (by the inspector) that someone had joined our dog club many years ago to suss it all out. He attended shows, asked about puppy sales, studs and if anyone would board his dog for holidays.
When I went to the office I was shown how they take meticulous records of the livestock ads.
I was asked to show how much money I made in prize money as I had ommited to include it in my returns :)

Poor chap was so disappointed with my answer.

He did come out with a funny question when I said I only sell, on average, ONE puppy per year..... "What do you do then...give them away...hahahahah".....Yes I do.

I've kept all vet receipts, food bills etc for the past eleven years, plus of course all receipts for anything sold. Those shows I've entered online I've got copies of the e-mails stating what's been paid, but not for other shows. But it brings up the question of whether we should write some kind of receipt even when not charging, to have it as proof. (It certainly happens quite a lot that I give pups and kittens away for free.) Do you do that ?

> We're talking about local councils

Yes - but councils employ similar tactics to chase similar fraud/cheats etc :) :)

> Yeah & those that have nothing to hide, should have nothing to worry about!!
>
> In an ideal world. But councils may decide that there is a limit to the number of dogs anyone may keep without registering your home for change of use as a business (whether you are losing vast amounts of money on feeding neutered pensioners or not), and then what do you do? It's happened in the past, the dog papers were full of such stories a few years ago.

I should have made myself a little clearer..I was referring more to those that claim benefits & breed & brag about going to 12 shows in a month!!!

I give up Daisy, I'm off to dog training (another expense) -by the time I come back maybe the subject will have turned round to other conspiracy theories (was JFK shot because he was a secret dog breeder not declaring it? And is Elvis still alive working as a professional dog handler?). ;) ;)

Many moons ago I worked as an Inspector for the then DHSS. I turned up at a farm early one morning to visit the farmer for a pre-arranged visit to discuss, at his request,  his personal National Insurance details. As I got out of my car he met me in the yard and started to talk to me - general chitchat etc - and during our conversation a mini bus pulled in and parked beside my car. After several minutes the driver got out and asked the farmer if we would move out of the yard as the passengers on his bus wouldn't get off to start work in the fields as several of them had recognised me from a previous visit where I was checking the casual workers' NI details. When I looked round at the minibus several heads ducked out of sight :-)

If they had all got off the bus straight away I wouldn't have paid them any attention at all -  as it was the new information I then managed to obtain  was added to that already held and two of the workers were successfully prosecuted for claiming benefits whilst working.

In those days, long before computers were everyday items of office equipment, we used to check the  adverts in the local papers to see who was advertising a business, items for sale etc and use that information as evidence in cases.

I expect you are right Tooolz and that it began with the neighbour, however not such a bad thing if they go on all the free web sites bet they could make a killing from all the tax dodgers there. But I expect it always starts with a complaint from someone first.

> But it brings up the question of whether we should write some kind of receipt even when not charging, to have it as proof. (It certainly happens quite a lot that I give pups and kittens away for free.) Do you do that

Not especially Marianne because I would have their sworn statements if needed.
The main thing the planning dept can get you on is increased footfall to a place of residence used for business.
Even one person coming to buy a puppy increases traffic my 'man' told me so I countered with  " I have had more people to look to buy my house in one week than come to buy a pup in a year".
One point to me!

Not sure of the ins and outs of it all but in my area you can run a business from a home, as long as the number of hours is under a certain amount. I have two members of my extended family who both do this, with the council's knowledge, and have not had to have their houses reclassifed for business rates. They were both visited by someone from the council and could both prove that their house was still their residence and the use of it for  business purposes was accepted as being a secondary use. One of them is a hairdresser and has a room in her house that she uses just for hairdressing and the other is a photographer and has a studio in his garden. As a lot of companies now actually encourage people to work from home instead of travelling to and from a fixed place of work there seems to be a more relaxed approach to running a business from home.

I wouldn't be surprised at what HMRC get up to as this year they decided that I owed them 40 pence in tax and wrote to me to tell me I had to pay up before the 31st January or I would be liable for a fine of £100! The letter cost them more than the 40 pence they were after as it was sent in a large envelope! Madness! Complete Madness!!!

I know I had a letter from the council when we first moved here about my part time grooming business - they seemed quite happy with my statement that I use one room which is also my dining room, with a grooming table in the corner and I groom 3 or 4 dogs a week plus my own. It's a few more than that now, but not more than about 8 or 10 a week. They couldn't tell me who had complained, we suspect perhaps the parish council as we get on very well with our neighbour and he is very fond of our dogs, so it's unlikely to have been him.