IR35 is dead

[pickle]

daft

To avoid any investigation (IR35 and otherwise) you need to be sensible. If you are a Director of a Ltd Co pay yourself a half-decent salary (£ 25k or so), if you've got a partner that (allegedly) does the admin give her another £ 7k or so, less pensions/expenses, rest is up to you how much you draw in dividends. If you play your cards right, you should never have to pay the top rate of tax. Afraid can't sympathise with any piss-takers be it the Ltd Co ones on £ 7k salary or (even worse) the ones using foreign-based tax-evading umbrellas

What the feck ARE you on about? Look, the way to run a personal services company, be it IT contractor, plumber, pilot, ski instructor, footballer (for their endorsements) is, in the majority of cases, fairly simple. Low salary (circa 5k) and dividends. Its NOT illegal. Its not even in the slightest bit dodgy.

So what if you get an investigation, if everything is above board, i.e. no dodgy expense claims, then the IR will/can do nothing.

Running your company in anything other than a legal but tax efficient manner is, quite frankly, stupid. You really think if the IR got a whiff of dodgy goings on in your accounts they would hold off an investigation because you pay yourself 20k more than me? la la la la la

The key is not worrying about getting an investigation. If you are in business for the long term you WILL eventually get a knock on the door, that’s the nature of the self reporting regime. The key is keeping your accounts legal, and well documented so that when they do come, they wont find anything to warrant a further dig about.

I’m afraid Asterix that you and people like you are paying more tax than is legally necessary, and just like the bloke who doesn’t arrange his affairs to avoid inheritance tax (as someone else mentioned) this makes you daft as brush.

Just my tupence.

[Asterix]

If that's what you think mate

I believe I am not the only one here that does it. I've had the same (chartered) accountant for the last 10 years who has got a few other contractors apart from me, is 100% familiar with all the IR legislation and on his advice I believe I have saved a lot of money AND managed to sleep well at night unlike a lot of other contractors. If you are talking about footballers, music stars and actors, we fall far below in terms of earning power so we can't afford to pay £ 50k or so for expert advice. If you're happy with what you do, it's fine by me. Carry on at your own risk.

[pickle]

If you're happy with what you do, it's fine by me. Carry on at your own risk.

But thats the bit I dont understand. Risk of what? The risk of the IR calling round, leafing through my books and saying, "yes Mr Pickle, everything legal and above board. Oh and congratulations on keeping such well documented and ordered accounts, makes our job a doddle. You should see some of the sh1te we have to wade through from your more 'mr khans corner shop' types of business"

There is no risk. it is NOT illegal and it is NOT dodgy. And if it means I can retire a few years earlier, well, roll on the beach

[wonderwaif]

I believe I am not the only one here that does it. I've had the same (chartered) accountant for the last 10 years who has got a few other contractors apart from me, is 100% familiar with all the IR legislation and on his advice I believe I have saved a lot of money AND managed to sleep well at night unlike a lot of other contractors. If you are talking about footballers, music stars and actors, we fall far below in terms of earning power so we can't afford to pay £ 50k or so for expert advice. If you're happy with what you do, it's fine by me. Carry on at your own risk.

My (chartered) accountant is also 100% familiar with all the IR Legislation, (he successfully represented a friend of mine during his PAYE compliance review). I asked if I should pay myself more and his advice to me was I am paying the correct amount of tax and it was not necessary to pay myself any more.
As I pay him for his professional advice, and to ensure my tax affairs are legal and above board, I see no reason not to take his advice.
Only time and an investigation will tell for sure, but I am not voluntarily giving that greedy begger Brown more than I have to. It's not as if they do anything useful with it.

[DimPrawn]

It's been a long time since IR35 was discussed like this.

There was a belief that the IR would decide on who to investigate via a PAYE audit based on salary to dividends ratio, since those on big bucks and tiny salaries would yield the most in tax and NI should the IR successfully win an IR35 case.

So it gave many contractors a safe feeling to pay themselves a very high salary (like £20K). However, if you are going to do that you are not much better off than ticking the IR35 box in the 1st place.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Only time and an investigation will tell for sure, but I am not voluntarily giving that greedy begger Brown more than I have to. It's not as if they do anything useful with it.

If everybody had that attitude how on earth could we afford the latest sexy multi billion nuclear weapons upgrade ?

Think of the poor millitary industrial complex for a change rather than your own selfish needs.

BTW Who are we at war with today,I find in hard to keep tabs these days

[bogeyman]

If everybody had that attitude how on earth could we afford the latest sexy multi billion nuclear weapons upgrade ?

Think of the poor millitary industrial complex for a change rather than your own selfish needs.

BTW Who are we at war with today,I find in hard to keep tabs these days

Indeed. And how would we subsidise the otherwise defunct economies of all those Labour Heartlands ooop North?


BTW, I think it's Eurasia.

[Erik The VIking]

BTW Who are we at war with today,I find in hard to keep tabs these days

Current international deployments by the British Army.

[oraclesmith]

But thats the bit I dont understand. Risk of what? The risk of the IR calling round, leafing through my books and saying, "yes Mr Pickle, everything legal and above board. Oh and congratulations on keeping such well documented and ordered accounts, makes our job a doddle. You should see some of the sh1te we have to wade through from your more 'mr khans corner shop' types of business"

There is no risk. it is NOT illegal and it is NOT dodgy. And if it means I can retire a few years earlier, well, roll on the beach

Maybe, but if there is a big amount of back tax in it for them (eg. for a high earner who's been on the same contract for five years and who regularly pay's himself and his wife £50k each in dividends), then I guess they might think it worthwhile going after them (a) to hit their teams target and (b) to make a point to the rest of us. eg. Artic ?

[wonderwaif]

If everybody had that attitude how on earth could we afford the latest sexy multi billion nuclear weapons upgrade ?

Think of the poor millitary industrial complex for a change rather than your own selfish needs.

BTW Who are we at war with today,I find in hard to keep tabs these days

You're absolutely right Alf, whatever was I thinking
I will report immediately to the Ministry Of Correction

Remember - 'Service guarantees Citizenship'