I'd seen in the dog press that the HMRC were contacting breeders of dogs and cats. With so few litters, I didn't think it would apply to me, WRONG! So the standard letter arrived and left me going out of my head with worry for the day and gave me a sleepless night.
After talking to Katrina and with my facts in order I decided to give them a ring in the morning, I got through to a very pleasant and helpful lady. I answered all her questions as truthfully as I could. She asked about the last three litters, so from the J litter in 2016 to our last litter, the L litter in 2021. (The M litter does not apply as it's in this financial year - because Siska missed to Vesco there are two studs/progesterone tests, health test, food and fuel, well I can't imagine a profit there either.) I guess three litters from 2016 and 2024 kind of did show that I'm not flooding the market. There is no doubt that I would have made a loss in 2016 and probably 2021, and with an emergency out of hours caesarian for the K litter, well funds were pretty damn low there too! Any profit made always goes back into the dogs, we never touch the money, it's their money.
I do understand that there are people who make a lot of money from breeding dogs, people who should pay tax on the profits they make. Like I say, mostly I doubt we break even, we do not breed for financial gain, we breed for the love of the breed. If I could put my order in for my own puppy, then I would. LOL
It must be easy to find who is breeding what, all the information is available online on the RKC website, but it has been suggested that the HMRC are getting their information from the insurance that reputable breeders put on the pups on the day of sale. Sadly, that will only stop some breeders insuring the pups!
It does seem that the greeders who escalated their prices ridiculously during covid is what had bought breeder to the attention of the HMRC. She asked me what I charge for the pups during covid? I explained that people had been waiting for these pups, I had given them a price before covid struck, that price did not change. I really hope my honestly means that as far as I'm concerned that this matter is closed; but one thing is for sure I'll be filing ever receipt down to the weekly 8 tins of sardines, 1 bag of carrots and one bucket of yogurt from now on. We'll have to wait and see what happens next now!
