Increasing clampdowns

[Sockpuppet]

Such as?

The love and security of working in a permie office.

[Bluebird]

It's always seemed to me that IR35 isn't a very difficult thing to get right. It wouldn't be hard to write some clear definitions that would catch 95% of us, so perhaps IR35v2 is in the works.

But perhaps the increase in small business CT is a sign of things to come. Your typical "genuine" enterprise wouldn't expect to make a profit for a few years, so higher CT has no negative effect. Whereas the likes of us are essentially using the relatively low rate of CT as a way of avoiding tax. If they made CT for small business a similar amount to income tax/NI, there'd be no point doing anything other than paying it all as salary.

I suppose the other way things could go is they start taxing dividends in the same way as salary.

As most MPs have loads of share I doubt they'd do that....

[ittony]

Such as?

A job.

[Euro-commuter]

I'm sure they've looked at other countries that have sorted this little one out.

That would be unusual for the UK. Even if you find out how other countries do it, that doesn't mean you dare implement it here.

France has a simple system: social contributions levied on all income. Salary, self-employed, dividends, savings, pensions: doesn't matter. You've got the income, you pay your social dues. Simple, and refreshingly clear of IR35-like complications. The French accept it because it falls evenly on everyone.

Now try levying these charges on savings, dividends, pensions etc in the UK, where they weren't levied before. Tumbril time!

[xoggoth]

Yeh. I have little doubt that sooner or later they will come after us for tax we should have paid on ISAs, soon followed by tax on extra money we would have earned if we had made a bit more effort.

[Old Greg]

You guys obviously know much more about this than me! But the intention of the government is clear with IR35 and if it has failed in part (it seems to act as a deterrent to some) then there will be something else to take its place. As divis are the mechanism we use, I reckon they will be the target. And if the result is to make the likes of us pay taxes at the rates that we would if we were employed, then I don't see it as a vote loser. If they're politically canny, they'll make it revenue neutral by introducing an eye-catching tax reduction elsewhere in the system.