BN66; what the hell is going on over there?

[PAH]

AIUI, isn't HMRC's position that the legislation has not changed, they are merely clarifying it. Consequently, the clarification goes back to when the legislation was initially implemented?

Since when was anything they do totally clear? They love keeping things clear as mud just so they can pull stunts like this.

If the legislation was clear enough in the first place they wouldn't need to clarify anything.

The icing on the cake is they can then apply it retrospectively after years of letting it go on.

So what if next they decide enough of this IR35, lets just tax all sole director companies who take small PAYE and large dividends as if they are caught, and apply it retrospectively to when IR35 started, plus penalties for late payment, plus interest for late payment. Nothing to stop them. Maybe it's inevitable.

[Churchill]

"Breaking News: The BBC has discovered that the nation's entire IT infrastructure, public and private, is under the control of a bunch of contractors who spend all their time posting tulip on an Internet forum."

Does the BBC use the same profanifilter?

[NickFitz]

Does the BBC use the same profanifilter?

The sad thing is that I actually typed the word "tulip" without thinking about it

[Mich the Tester]

No. I don't like 40% tax either, it's too high.

However I like even less people who pay 3.5% instead of 40% - at the very least this means other taxpayers will have to pay more or Govt would have to borrow more which in turn means even higher costs to taxpayers.

If it was 35% vs 40% I'd say this is probably legit, it certainly won't be piss take, but at 3.5% anyone involved in this scheme should have the difference in a bank for at least 10 years just in case scheme gets challenged and they lose.

Churchill’s got it right. HMRC f**ked up. They left a gaping hole in the legislation, people then used it, then HMRC say ‘that’s not fair’ and retrospectively closed the hole by ‘clarifying’ or ‘putting new convenient spin on’ the legislation. You used the analogy of a business. A business that f**ks up will not get the revenues it expects. That’s why businesses spend lots of money on reviewing documents, testing products etc to try and prevent this, but can’t cover all eventualities. When an eventuality arises that they failed to consider, tough luck. You can’t then go and charge customers retrospectively for f**king up with your own pricing.

Effectively, this kind of decision is like saying ‘HMRC can f**k up as much as they like, and if they do so they can recover the costs from people who didn’t break the law’.

[Iron Condor]

All this grief because of IR35, which hardly anyone pays now anyway.

All these scheme providers had a field day, laughing all the way to the bank.

I tried to explain to people back in 2001 that these schemes were not worth the potential hassle.

Some of the people i met who were on these schemes knew they were dodgy but didnt seem to care.

Other seemed to have been dazzled by the official documents provided by a Legal QC. As if these made the schemes bulletproof.

One contractor even said to me, he thought the scheme might be dodgy but he hoped to get 'lost in the numbers' when HMRC got round to looking into them.

The vast majority of contractors did not go anywhere near these schemes, even though they knew they existed.

Alot paid IR35 in the early days and eventually used contracts and working practices that put them outside.

[Platypus]

They left a gaping hole in the legislation, people then used it, then HMRC say ‘that’s not fair’ and retrospectively closed the hole by ‘clarifying’ or ‘putting new convenient spin on’ the legislation.

The judgement didn't leave me with that impression at all.

[Mich the Tester]

The judgement didn't leave me with that impression at all.

well, hole

[Platypus]

All this grief because of IR35, which hardly anyone pays now anyway.

It's my impression that most contractors simply pay up. Or use a brolly. Same thing.

[chef]

"Breaking News: The BBC has discovered that the nation's entire IT infrastructure, public and private, is under the control of a bunch of contractors who spend all their time posting tulip on an Internet forum."

[Platypus]

well, hole

IMO, slight gap, depending on your interpretation