MPs' shock at BBC tax deals - Workers paid via personal service companies

[Ignis Fatuus]

I was disappointed to hear the BBC news describe some people as "not paying tax on their salary".

Also, Mich, when you say that tax avoidance is legal, I think you are making a precise distinction that is in the process of being erased by HMG and HMRC, in favour of the idea that it is wrong not to pay the "correct" amount of tax, that being the amount that they would like you to pay.

HM Revenue & Customs Anti-Avoidance Strategy

The Strategy
A small minority of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) customers continue to engage in tax avoidance, which undermines the delivery of fair tax outcomes. We aim to persuade our customers not to attempt to engage in avoidance by:

•making tax law robust against avoidance
•engaging with our customers about our approach to avoidance
•optimising our operational response to avoidance; and
•changing the economics of avoidance to make it less attractive
so that the expected costs, difficulties and risks of attempting avoidance outweigh the expected potential gains.

Why tax avoidance is a problem for everyone
Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and HM Treasury (HMT) have a shared objective of minimising the tax gap (that is, the difference between the tax collected and the tax we think ought to be collected).

[Mich the Tester]

I was disappointed to hear the BBC news describe some people as "not paying tax on their salary".

Also, Mich, when you say that tax avoidance is legal, I think you are making a precise distinction that is in the process of being erased by HMG and HMRC, in favour of the idea that it is wrong not to pay the "correct" amount of tax, that being the amount that they would like you to pay.

HM Revenue & Customs Anti-Avoidance Strategy

Hmm, if only governments would 'minimise the tax gap' by pissing less money into the wind and 'change the economics' by spending the money they've got instead of always running out of other people's money.

[The Spartan]

On the subject of tax this rings a bell and makes me laugh yet what can they do
Google pays just £6m UK tax - Telegraph

[Mich the Tester]

Why am I starting to think the Wail's marketing people have identified grumpy old lefties as a potentially profitable segment of the market?

[moggy]

As soon as they labelled the first 2,500 it was always going to spread. The biggest irony was the MP's shock at people not paying their fair share...

[tractor]

On the subject of tax this rings a bell and makes me laugh yet what can they do
Google pays just £6m UK tax - Telegraph

Amazon, Vodaphone etc etc etc

[The Spartan]

Amazon, Vodaphone etc etc etc

You got that right, but in all reality are they going to take on these corporations? I think not so yet again they're talking pap and doing the usual thing of targeting the little guys

[d000hg]

Not really, this was the advice given by Business Link for many, many years and certainly for several years after the introduction of IR35. IIRC the advice even went on to tell you how to make the most of your spouse's allowance (when they were transferable).

The advice is long gone from their website now of course, but I wonder how many of us stored it for evidence should we become subject of an IR35 investigation. I know I did.

BL is not HMRC, they are/were a separate entity tied to the government through a series of complex contracts with private companies who tendered to run the service. At least that's how UKTI work so I assume it's similar... HMRC can easily get out of it by saying that was not their official position.

[Project Monkey]

"The Newsnight presenter insisted the BBC had ‘required me to form a company if I wanted to continue to present Newsnight. It claimed it had been told to do so by the HMRC’"

It would be funny if that is proven to be true.

A mate of mine worked freelance for the Beeb for about 10 year as a sole trader, no Ltd, no brollie, no anual accounts, no CH return, no nothing! I never understood this but apparently the Beeb didn't see it as a problem. Perhapse they do now.

[lukemg]

Stupid bint on radio 5 this morning with NO idea what she was on about and doing the usual of presuming it was exactly the same as a perm job.
She was then challenged about additional expenses, redundancy, new pension enrolment costs. Errrr, I just think they should pay the same as everyone else. What, you mean the same as the people who dont have to look for a job every 3 months, get sick pay, pensions, training, redundancy pay, career development blah blah blah.
Other chap on said look, if you want a flexible workforce with the skills you need at that exact time for relatively short periods of a year or so, this is 100% the best way to get it and the cheapest.
'Errr - I just don't think its fair' - SHUT THE F*** UP !!!