A rant
Right – get a coffee, and get comfortable: on my 1 hour motorbike ride to work I have been mulling over the mother of all rants……………….
I, like many I suspect, stumbled into contracting after being made redundant. It seemed a fair deal – in exchange for taking a greater element of risk, you could be paid a bit more than you might get as an employee. Of course, all the other costs need to be taken into account – accountancy; indemnity insurance; critical illness / permanent disability insurance; time off for holiday or sickness; not to mention trying to fund a pension.
I’ve taken my knocks – periods out of work; contracts cut; rate reductions. But overall, it seemed fair middle ground, and I enjoy the flexibility
But as with everything with this odorous, grabbing, pernicious government, they weren’t happy. Oh no – despite the fact that you have no job security, no benefits, and are the first to get the chop for whatever reason, Gordon and his henchmen introduced IR35 in an attempt to say that I and other contractors were actually employees. And, as we employed ourselves, we would actually end up paying more tax than a “normal” employee (through paying employer and employee NI).
I spent a lot of time, and money, p*ssing around with contract reviews to ensure that I would not be caught by IR35 legislation. Then I was contacted by my then Agent who said they had checked out a new scheme which was safe. Now, I am actually not averse to paying a “fair” level of tax, but I was getting more and more riled by the moves above. I looked into it, took advice, and generally came convinced that it was above board, and joined up.
Then, of course, I started getting the threatening, bullying letters from You Know Who – I shall call him Voldemort. Yes – this did concern me. But over time, I am become more and more angry, and have decided that I will not be pushed around.
I do not have a problem with people in public service. I recognise there is a place for secure jobs with secure benefits. I also recognise the need to collect tax. But when these people fail to realise that they are elected civil servants, and start to behave in a distinctly uncivil way, I turn from being a law abiding citizen to someone far more petulant.
Yes – the Dual Tax Treaty scheme was probably a bit near the knuckle, but there seems little doubt that it was legal. HMRC screwed up – simple as that. Fair enough, rewrite the legislation and we all move on. Try to apply the rewrite retrospectively, though, and to quote our Atlantic Cousins, you are in a whole new ball game.
Give us a fair, level playing field, and I for one would not complain.
Any attempt I have made to secure the future of my family is currently being undermined, in large part by the failures of this government. Pension funds raided by the government and decimated; property prices down; stocks and funds on their knees………………….. My wife currently has a (private sector) final salary pension scheme, but how long will this last?
So how dare a protected, guaranteed final salary civil service act in this way? Do they not realise how much of our money is going to fund their retirements? There was a guy on the radio the other day smugly talking about how the recession had been okay for him as he had been able to take retirement from a Council at 53 – but he was a bit put out that he wasn’t able to claim Job Seekers allowance as he was on a pension! The sheer unadulterated nerve of it………………… I was spitting blood.
W*nker.
I still remember when Labour got elected. The smugness of it. “Things can only get better” blaring out of the stage. Yes, things have got better……………. if you form part of the burgeoning public sector. Anyone else just seems a target. A few mph over the speed limit – Fine………Motorbike in a bus lane – Fine. There isn’t a farting in public fine (that I am aware of) – yet.
I remember a colleague of the time, about 55 years old, saying that you lot don’t know what’s coming – last time round, you just felt as though someone had their hand in your pocket all the time.
He was right…………
Right, I shall go and find a darkened room with some rubber wall paper now…..
Right – get a coffee, and get comfortable: on my 1 hour motorbike ride to work I have been mulling over the mother of all rants……………….
I, like many I suspect, stumbled into contracting after being made redundant. It seemed a fair deal – in exchange for taking a greater element of risk, you could be paid a bit more than you might get as an employee. Of course, all the other costs need to be taken into account – accountancy; indemnity insurance; critical illness / permanent disability insurance; time off for holiday or sickness; not to mention trying to fund a pension.
I’ve taken my knocks – periods out of work; contracts cut; rate reductions. But overall, it seemed fair middle ground, and I enjoy the flexibility
But as with everything with this odorous, grabbing, pernicious government, they weren’t happy. Oh no – despite the fact that you have no job security, no benefits, and are the first to get the chop for whatever reason, Gordon and his henchmen introduced IR35 in an attempt to say that I and other contractors were actually employees. And, as we employed ourselves, we would actually end up paying more tax than a “normal” employee (through paying employer and employee NI).
I spent a lot of time, and money, p*ssing around with contract reviews to ensure that I would not be caught by IR35 legislation. Then I was contacted by my then Agent who said they had checked out a new scheme which was safe. Now, I am actually not averse to paying a “fair” level of tax, but I was getting more and more riled by the moves above. I looked into it, took advice, and generally came convinced that it was above board, and joined up.
Then, of course, I started getting the threatening, bullying letters from You Know Who – I shall call him Voldemort. Yes – this did concern me. But over time, I am become more and more angry, and have decided that I will not be pushed around.
I do not have a problem with people in public service. I recognise there is a place for secure jobs with secure benefits. I also recognise the need to collect tax. But when these people fail to realise that they are elected civil servants, and start to behave in a distinctly uncivil way, I turn from being a law abiding citizen to someone far more petulant.
Yes – the Dual Tax Treaty scheme was probably a bit near the knuckle, but there seems little doubt that it was legal. HMRC screwed up – simple as that. Fair enough, rewrite the legislation and we all move on. Try to apply the rewrite retrospectively, though, and to quote our Atlantic Cousins, you are in a whole new ball game.
Give us a fair, level playing field, and I for one would not complain.
Any attempt I have made to secure the future of my family is currently being undermined, in large part by the failures of this government. Pension funds raided by the government and decimated; property prices down; stocks and funds on their knees………………….. My wife currently has a (private sector) final salary pension scheme, but how long will this last?
So how dare a protected, guaranteed final salary civil service act in this way? Do they not realise how much of our money is going to fund their retirements? There was a guy on the radio the other day smugly talking about how the recession had been okay for him as he had been able to take retirement from a Council at 53 – but he was a bit put out that he wasn’t able to claim Job Seekers allowance as he was on a pension! The sheer unadulterated nerve of it………………… I was spitting blood.
W*nker.
I still remember when Labour got elected. The smugness of it. “Things can only get better” blaring out of the stage. Yes, things have got better……………. if you form part of the burgeoning public sector. Anyone else just seems a target. A few mph over the speed limit – Fine………Motorbike in a bus lane – Fine. There isn’t a farting in public fine (that I am aware of) – yet.
I remember a colleague of the time, about 55 years old, saying that you lot don’t know what’s coming – last time round, you just felt as though someone had their hand in your pocket all the time.
He was right…………
Right, I shall go and find a darkened room with some rubber wall paper now…..
not a lover 
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