Whats your views on Budget 2015?

[Wijay@WISAccountancy]

National minimum wage does not apply to family members of the employer living in the employer’s home.

agreed if that the case Osbourne will argue employer allowance is not applicable...

[Wijay@WISAccountancy]

Looking for the positive angles, nice work Wijay...

Got to look for that silver lining..:-). Thanks for your input into this threat - highly appreciated!

[javadude]

Nice writeup:

Contractors are to pay an extra 7.5% tax on dividends from April 2016

And that was simplifying dividend taxation?

[AtW]

And that was simplifying dividend taxation?

Just imagine what he'd do if he wanted to make it complicated!

[Dan@OrangeGenie]

But honestly, if my accountant put up fees because of increasing complexity, I'd shrug and say, "Can't blame you." The service he provides me is worth more to me now than it was yesterday, it would be churlish of me to quibble over a couple hundred pounds a year extra, if that's what he does.

Wow, really, can I have you as my client!

[MrWebDev]

That Contract Calculator link is by far and away the most comprehensive and well explained review of yesterdays changes I've read (I'm including InTouch's latest email/PDF in that group too). Thanks PerfectStorm

I somewhat (now) naively thought that we wouldn't do too bad out of this current Gov. as they seemed to be using a lot of fairly positive rhetoric about businesses like ours. They keep on banging on about a flexible workforce (of which us contractors are a part of) yet now they deliver us a big kick in the gonads. *IF* the Contractor Calculator write-up is 100% correct, in some cases us contractors will be paying more % wise in tax than people on PAYE, which is astounding. I've not got a good feeling at all now about the upcoming IR35 review, it could well be the final nail in the coffin. As far as the PGCE are concerned, they've been led up the garden path by the Gov.

N.B. The devil will be in the detail. I'm sure it'll be a week or two whilst the accountants do their work to figure this all out, there's quite a few changes in there.

[Danglekt]

Newbie alert!

I've been reading on here for some time, but signed up today to add two comments:

1) as a new contractor (just over a year) I'm not chuffed with the budget, but I still earn a lot more than I would as a perm, so I'm not throwing my hands up about this, as it will have an impact, but not enough to make it even close to consider anything drastic

2) Have the Gov not considered VAT in all this? If I was a perm they wouldn't get a tasty 14% slice of my rather large (for one person anyway) pie... Seems a bit daft when they get 14% of everything, 20% of most of it via CT and finally x% of the rest via income tax...

Surely that is WAY more than they could get from us all going PAYE?

[Wijay@WISAccountancy]

That Contract Calculator link is by far and away the most comprehensive and well explained review of yesterdays changes I've read (I'm including InTouch's latest email/PDF in that group too). Thanks PerfectStorm

I somewhat (now) naively thought that we wouldn't do too bad out of this current Gov. as they seemed to be using a lot of fairly positive rhetoric about businesses like ours. They keep on banging on about a flexible workforce (of which us contractors are a part of) yet now they deliver us a big kick in the gonads. *IF* the Contractor Calculator write-up is 100% correct, in some cases us contractors will be paying more % wise in tax than people on PAYE, which is astounding. I've not got a good feeling at all now about the upcoming IR35 review, it could well be the final nail in the coffin. As far as the PGCE are concerned, they've been led up the garden path by the Gov.

N.B. The devil will be in the detail. I'm sure it'll be a week or two whilst the accountants do their work to figure this all out, there's quite a few changes in there.

Well said...I think if you go into detail - benefits of Flat rate VAT, ability to employ spouse are still attractive. I agree it's not the same saving as current but this always better than PAYE option.
PCGE/IPSE needs to do more to push the agenda for contractors...

[jamesbrown]

"Ordinary" investors are starting to whine. Not that it matters, methinks. Landlords will be whining too, as will nondoms, those receiving tax credits, ...

[d000hg]

*IF* the Contractor Calculator write-up is 100% correct, in some cases us contractors will be paying more % wise in tax than people on PAYE, which is astounding.

Which cases? Are you taking the fact we typically pay very little NI into account?