News today that Hammond wants to tighten up on IR35.
bbc.co.uk/news/business-45822650
Suggests that
“It is now looking at demanding that firms which use personal service company contractors take legal responsibility for ensuring “off-payroll” contractors stick to the tax rules known as IR35.”
No doubt the Agencies will be seeking legal advice as to how to get around the legislation if / when it is introduced. About time the Agencies were held to account for actively promoting the setting up of Ltd Co’s by the worker and then screwing the worker over in the process. Looks like the government are going to start meddling with tax / ni legislation regarding worker’s tax affairs (IR35), instead of going for the real problem which is the poor quality and poor pay that exists out there. If they push too hard it will come back and bite them right on the jacksie.
Not everyone agrees with these proposals:
“Representatives of the contracting industry point out that freelancers charge more for their services than they would if they were “employed”, so any tax gain would be wiped out, as incomes on which tax is paid would be lower.”
The assumption is that those of you who are self-employed earn more [and therefore pay more income tax] than the PAYE people.
The title of the post is Limited benefits. If the government gets it’s way there soon won’t be any. There’s now mention of the threshold of £85000 turnover before a company has to register for VAT being lowered to £40000 turnover. I’m wondering whether that has something to do with the FRS scheme being no longer advantagous.Oh dear chancellor youv’e suddenly realised there’s a hole in your VAT receipts so why not hammer small co’s with more expense, more red tape and more aggravation. Now there’s a great idea from the government that is supposed to be small business friendly.