Small business debate

[original PM]

And yet on here the die hard Tories will argue until their final breath that the Tory party are better for us They'd be better off voting for the Brexit Party but they haven't got the balls as they fall for the media lies that there are only 2 parties.

And yeah cos every party which gets in sticks to it's manifesto to the letter and everything they said pre election is always followed through on.

You know that not only the word gullible but also the word naive has been removed from the dictionary?

[BrilloPad]

The trouble is, there's bob hope chance of the Lib Dems getting the numbers to influence a new government so they can say what the heck they like.

Agreed. Though in 2010 not many thought they would be in coalition. And we then found they had no influence.....

[SimonMac]

Tuned into the live stream for the Small Business Debate

Bill Esterston (Labour) has just said that IR35 needs to be reviewed in the public sector and "absolutely" not rolled out to the private sector.

Brexit party matey (didn't catch name) also says it should be scrapped.

So politician says exactly what the audience wants to hear?

[BoredBloke]

I think it's inevitable we'll pay more tax.

What makes me upset is when we are singled out and accused of being tax dodging disguised employees.

The ltd company structure allows us to smooth the income to cover time between contracts, sickness, and claim the costs of getting to clients at the other end of the country.

If an increased div tax applied to everyone, I might whinge a bit, but it's a hell of a lot better than forcing clients to deduct employee taxes at source.

Not just that. At one point last year, for a brief bit of time I had 3 clients on the go. Via a limited it's easy. All the money goes into a single pot and the tax is determined by my accountant. How is that going to work if you have 3 clients and 3 different brollies in play. The chances of the right amount of tax being paid I'd put at about zero!

[mudskipper]

So politician says exactly what the audience wants to hear?

And has tweeted confirmation.

Bill Esterson on Twitter: "Correct… "

[original PM]

Not just that. At one point last year, for a brief bit of time I had 3 clients on the go. Via a limited it's easy. All the money goes into a single pot and the tax is determined by my accountant. How is that going to work if you have 3 clients and 3 different brollies in play. The chances of the right amount of tax being paid I'd put at about zero!

Yup because if you have 3 brollies you effectively have 3 different employers - so only 1 of them can have your p45 so you would pay base rate tax on anything earned through the other 2.

Guess you may be able to claim something back on a self assessment form though???

[PTP]

And has tweeted confirmation.

Bill Esterson on Twitter: "Correct… "

It's been noticed on Twitter that multiple Bill Esterston posts that had impressed small businesses/contractors have now been deleted. So gossip is now being tweeted that McDonnell must have got him to backtrack.

Plus, brace yourselves, sounds like we've got another HMRC defeat to look forward to. Details still not available yet
Talk of another HMRC defeat

[SimonMac]

And has tweeted confirmation.

Bill Esterson on Twitter: "Correct… "

Seems to have deleted his tweet

[vwdan]

I think it's inevitable we'll pay more tax.

What makes me upset is when we are singled out and accused of being tax dodging disguised employees.

The ltd company structure allows us to smooth the income to cover time between contracts, sickness, and claim the costs of getting to clients at the other end of the country.

If an increased div tax applied to everyone, I might whinge a bit, but it's a hell of a lot better than forcing clients to deduct employee taxes at source.

I still maintain that the simplest way forwards would be to tax dividends as salary, but keep the rest the same. I really don't have any major qualms or arguments against the "taxation" argument - in that, yeah, if I pay myself £50k then I should probably pay the same tax as the next person getting £50k.

But, as you say, what I want is the flexibility to claim expenses, organise my affairs, plan my business, diversify and so on. Of course, as ever, we're an easy target, one that can't really fight back and one that doesn't really have the support of the public.