Last month HMRC did a routine VAT audit on Allcam, the first time in our 16-year corporate history. Yesterday HMRC notified that we have passed their audit. The whole audit process was completed in less than one month, obviously this is a record for the local HMRC office.
Looking back the 16-year history in business, I (Paul Zhu) want to take this opportunity to make a few comments:
- I am really grateful that UK has a pro-business government who champions fair competition. I am a 1st generation immigrant who started Allcam in 2002 from my bedroom. My business never meet hidden bias or barriers, nor was subject to cumbersome government checks and audits. I know this is impossible in most developing countries or even newly industrialized countries. I love UK!
- For conservative people like me, it is better to do honest business: work hard, earn a little bit of profit, and pay the taxes, and the UK government will leave you in peace. I know some businesses, even famous multinational companies, use all kinds of tricks to dodge taxes and fair-competition rules. The government has to launch one lengthy investigation after another against them, and by the way it costs tax-payer a lot of money in the process. I know many of them only get a symbolic penalty or even let off the hook, it may seems to some people a worthwhile exercise for its financial gains. For me peaceful night dreams are more important. I always live a frugal life and thanks to China, people in UK can now live very cheap (if they want to and have enough self-discipline to do so).
- The UK government always adopt balanced approaches to almost everything: keep the welfare for the poor while give enough incentives to the entrepreneurs; look after the disadvantaged people while encourage hard work; promote freedom while crack down violence and discrimination; support fairness while remain efficient, rein in budget expenditure while maintain NHS and national pension intact … A lot of people don’t appreciate how difficulty these can be. They admire how quick the Chinese government can built the high ways and airports, but they don’t realize how much Chinese people have sacrificed. We take so many things for granted, for example: heating in winter, clean tap water in every home, free hospital treatment (even for the drunk who causing trouble to themselves)… but do we know that most Chinese people don’t have heating in winter, or how many happy families were broken overnight due to a costly disease in China?
I love UK! and I hope those moaning people will also appreciate what a wonderful country UK is, and start to contribute their own bit to make UK an even better place for everybody.