Write/email your MP asking them to support EDM 1239

[starstruck]

I
My case is not typical .... haven't used a DR scheme in the last 13 years...

I don't think this is so un-typical at all. I think there are lots of us like this.

[Calmbeforethestorm]

I don't think this is so un-typical at all. I think there are lots of us like this.

Happy to stand corrected.

[QCApproved]

Bumping this thread
it continues to be important to contact your MP even if they have signed.
Once again anyone in the PMs constituency can make themselves known to LCAG for guidance and advice.

[webberg]

I'll ask again.

Those organisations with access to the greatest number of active contractors are:

Contractor accountants
Recruiters
Agencies

Why are they not asking their clients to sign?

Why are you - their clients - not asking them to circulate the message?

[Dmac]

Contractor accountants

I'll ask again.

Those organisations with access to the greatest number of active contractors are:

Contractor accountants
Recruiters
Agencies

Why are they not asking their clients to sign?

Why are you - their clients - not asking them to circulate the message?

Agree we should all be pushing the message in whatever avenues we can.

My accountant is a specialist contractor accountant who must have many clients who have used schemes in the past. I will email them later with links to the key threads on this website, with a recommendation to send an info-mail to their clients with details.

They can see this as a "value add" to their clients in highlighting the issue to them, and the support available on the site, and in case any prior scheme user has lived in a cave for the last 2 years and has not heard yet of LC19. I will also ask them to support the EDM by lobbying their own MP in support of the contractor community.

[headspin]

My MP also felt EDMs were useless and so contacted Mel Stride instead. Unsurprisingly, she got the same generic response he sends to everyone which she kindly posted to me. I've asked her to not be content with being brushed off like that and ask him the difficult questions he regularly avoids. We'll see.

[Groundhogdays]

Not Hopeless or Useless

My MP also felt EDMs were useless and so contacted Mel Stride instead. Unsurprisingly, she got the same generic response he sends to everyone which she kindly posted to me. I've asked her to not be content with being brushed off like that and ask him the difficult questions he regularly avoids. We'll see.

ILooking at the records, it is true that the vast majority of EDMs gain little support and go nowhere, so it must feel like spam mail when MPs get asked to sign this and that every other week. Understandable.

This EDM is different - it is not frivolous or a minority issue, as it starts to dawn on people just how many industries and individuals face destabilising and life changing circumstances at a time when the flexible workforce has never been needed more (especially in NHS, etc.).

All eyes may be on Brexit for now, but the 2019 Loan Charge and related IR35 (and probable retrospection in both public and private sectors) off payroll rules are a slow-burning topic, which is why EDM 1239 is continuing to pick up cross-party support (77 MP signatures as of today). Like the Tory Poll Tax, it is destined to blow up in the government's face and throw a spanner in the works of commerce just as we leave the EU.

Retrospective tax on an industrial scale is not a good wheeze, walks all over natural social justice and will only scare off investment in the end. The real fault always lay with HMRC not acting sooner to shut down schemes (probably held back by government during the boom years). But they couldn't do so legally, could they? And government wanted to encourage business and investment, so weren't concerned with companies avoiding employer's costs. The whole chain of events from the financial crash through the gig economy kind of sprang up on them, until they had to do something. Continued light regulation in that sense, only would lead to a situation like Greece. Although, if it came to it, we certainly couldn't go to the EU with cap in hand!

It's just 'not as parliament intended', is it?

[QCApproved]

Please continue to do this - it's having an impact.Even if your MP has signed the EDM there is utility in them hearing your personal story and specific circumstances and so that they can continue to have an appreciation of the scale of the issue in their constituency.
The LCAG will be able to assist you with any particular issues or questions on approaching your MP.

[Calmbeforethestorm]

If anyone knows any opposition front benchers or has them as an MP they might get further.....if ministers cant sign EDMs maybe they can.79 MPs is a good amount....but we need to add another 100 I imagine including some influential ones to get the matter debated.

This is possibly the only way the legislation can be halted before it takes effect unless anyone thinks they can get a court injunction???

[GreenMirror]

One issue this EDM has is that LC is finance legislation. To overturn that requires a vote of no confidence in the government.

The time to fight this was 2008. Now that retrospective legislation is legal, the fight is much harder.

IMO it will require legal action. Getting 10% of those affected(10,000 of 100,000) to put in £1,000 each should create a £10m pot.