Crackdown on personal service companies could raise £400m in tax

[ShandyDrinker]

I'm surprised that you're surprised.

Lets not kid ourselves. The vast majority of the public view PSCs as outright tax dodging.

Unfortunately you're spot on. Generally I like to see the positive but in this instance I can see that the politics of envy are alive and well. Anyone can go contracting but you have to have the confidence that your skills are marketable enough to do so.

[eek]

I'm surprised that you're surprised.

Lets not kid ourselves. The vast majority of the public view PSCs as outright tax dodging.

PSCs are outright tax dodging. We don't however run PSCs (or at least I don't) we run small specialist consultancies that provide higher quality work than most consultancies at a far lower cost.

[centurian]

PSCs are outright tax dodging. We don't however run PSCs (or at least I don't) we run small specialist consultancies that provide higher quality work than most consultancies at a far lower cost.

The subtleties of what is and isn't a PSC can be argued until the sky falls in. None of it matters. A sizeable chunk of the public will view that whatever it is you are doing, however you define it and justify it - as tax dodging.

That's why there won't be a widespread outrage over this.

[ShandyDrinker]

PSCs are outright tax dodging. We don't however run PSCs (or at least I don't) we run small specialist consultancies that provide higher quality work than most consultancies at a far lower cost.

The subtleties of what is and isn't a PSC can be argued until the sky falls in. None of it matters. A sizeable chunk of the public will view that whatever it is you are doing, however you define it and justify it - as tax dodging.

That's why there won't be a widespread outrage over this.

Centurian is right. The definition is just splitting hairs. The government are trying to gauge whether they can get this through on public support so the definition really doesn't matter.

The crux here is whether you source work via an Agency/Intermediary. Those that are able to source work directly should be fine and congratulations to you if you are one of those people. Over the 7+ years I've been contracting about half of that time has been spent in direct contracts but unfortunately I've found them harder to source in the last 3 years.

[eek]

The subtleties of what is and isn't a PSC can be argued until the sky falls in. None of it matters. A sizeable chunk of the public will view that whatever it is you are doing, however you define it and justify it - as tax dodging.

That's why there won't be a widespread outrage over this.

If it was just the politics of envy a government would just ban the use of PSCs which would be far less work than creating exceptions.

The fact they aren't simply banning the concept of the PSC should tell you something

[tomtomagain]

”A contractor who uses an agency to find work with a range of IT firms for short periods will still be able to classify themselves as a personal service company. ”

What the hell is an IT firm? And why should working for one of them as an contractor be OK, whereas working for an Accounting Firm, or Building firm not be?

[Tasslehoff]

Why bring in rules to reduce tax breaks for PSC and in the next breath ban them almost completely.

Does not make any sense

[Zero Liability]

IMHO, it would reduce the tax take as independent contractors go permie on typical permie salaries, along with the massively reduced amounts of tax paid on a typical permie salary.

Clearly some of Cameron and Osbourne's cronies at Capita have asked them to work out how to get rid of those pesky independent contractors.

The already dubious figure isn't even right with the advent of the dividend tax. It is complete nonsense.

Yep, seen it this morning and made a comment. I'm surprised how many people downvoted it!

I guess before the announcement in the Autumn statement they're gauging the level of public support...

There's a number of reasonable comments, maybe one of which was yours, which are predominantly upvoted; it's the Fail, there's a lot of idiots who comment and read there, who don't have the foggiest idea what the whole argument is about and think this is about sticking it to the BBC (which the Tories aren't in any way), so I would not think too much of it. If you had made the same comment on The Telegraph it'd go in the opposite direction.

[Milkyway]

It couldn't possibly involve brown envelopes from our offshoring friends in India of course.

ICT_R_US.

If what you say has any truth in it, then you do realise that taking bribe is also a crime - don't you?
Or is conveniently ignored, because the taker is British

[centurian]

If it was just the politics of envy a government would just ban the use of PSCs which would be far less work than creating exceptions.

The fact they aren't simply banning the concept of the PSC should tell you something

Oh, it's very much about the politics of envy - that's blindingly obvious.

But yes, it would make more sense just to ban PSCs completely - assuming you can define what they are - something HMRC have never done, although they say this is deliberate.