IR35 stays...

[VectraMan]

This would be the worst of all possible outcomes IMO, would kill contracting.

I never understand why people protest that contracting only exists because of the way we can avoid some tax. I did my first contract with an umbrella, and I was still able to more or less double my take home pay over my previous permanent job. Sure it changes the calculation when balancing one against the other, but claiming that paying the same rate of tax as an employee would kill contracting sounds like somebody throwing their toys out of the pram.

Obviously I'm not in favour of IR35, but contracting isn't just about that last 10% of income. I'd probably still be a contractor if I'd had no choice but to pay employee levels of tax.

[dx4100]

I never understand why people protest that contracting only exists because of the way we can avoid some tax. I did my first contract with an umbrella, and I was still able to more or less double my take home pay over my previous permanent job. Sure it changes the calculation when balancing one against the other, but claiming that paying the same rate of tax as an employee would kill contracting sounds like somebody throwing their toys out of the pram.

Obviously I'm not in favour of IR35, but contracting isn't just about that last 10% of income. I'd probably still be a contractor if I'd had no choice but to pay employee levels of tax.

Agreed... It isn't the level of tax I have to pay that bothers me. It classifying me as an "employee" which I am clearly not that winds me up and the restrictions which go with it.

[dx4100]

I am totally behind the PCG... The have done well getting the government to respond to the issue at least...

Happy to continue my membership with them and as pointed out, its not just IR35 that concern us all.

Am I right in thinking we have 20,000 members and the number of contractors is around 1.4 million ? Shocking really, more people should join and make the movement stronger.

[Boo]

PCG led up the garden path by the Tories. Major fail.

+1.

0 out of 10 score.

Boo

[malvolio]

+1.

0 out of 10 score.

Boo

You're back. And as predictable as ever.

Erm, well done.

[dx4100]

Got an email from Abbey Tax this morning saying:

Unfortunately, this means more than business as usual because the Government wants HMRC to police IR35 better than it has done before. We assume that this will mean more enquiries and more grief for the contractor community.

So they are fearing the worse... Although, its in their interest to push the worse case

[TykeMerc]

Am I right in thinking we have 20,000 members and the number of contractors is around 1.4 million ? Shocking really, more people should join and make the movement stronger.

I very much doubt that there are 1.4 million contractors in the UK unless you include lots of people who're sole traders and in businesses that aren't affected by IR35.
There are only 27 million people of working age in the UK and at least 5 million of those are unemployed or "economically inactive".

The PCG doesn't appeal to all IT contractors, not all IT contractors agree with their approach or how some of the funds have been handled and some contractors simply don't give a hoot about IR35 and would rather it was left alone or just accept that they're inside IR35.

20,000 members is quite a lot when when you consider all those factors.

[dx4100]

I very much doubt that there are 1.4 million contractors in the UK unless you include lots of people who're sole traders and in businesses that aren't affected by IR35.
There are only 27 million people of working age in the UK and at least 5 million of those are unemployed or "economically inactive".

The PCG doesn't appeal to all IT contractors, not all IT contractors agree with their approach or how some of the funds have been handled and some contractors simply don't give a hoot about IR35 and would rather it was left alone or just accept that they're inside IR35.

20,000 members is quite a lot when when you consider all those factors.

I defo saw the number 1.4 pushed by someone at some point... but like you say, it does sound somewhat high.

[malvolio]

I defo saw the number 1.4 pushed by someone at some point... but like you say, it does sound somewhat high.

No, it's somewhat low. There are 4.7 million people in the country who work for themselves (including some who own fairly substantial companies of course). The 1.4 million are those we would recognise as one-man bands or similar nano businesses. The numbers, along with a measure of how much they contribute to GDP each year (which was a lot) were provided by independent researchers from a university business school, and are almost certainly reliable.

[SorenLorensen]

I never understand why people protest that contracting only exists because of the way we can avoid some tax.

That rule is not about how we pay tax, it's an imposition on how we choose to work.