Reply to: Income Shifting

[Denny]

About six months back, someone in the local pub challenged me as being a tax-avoiding wotsit. I pointed out that my overall tax bill for the year was greater than his gross salary of around £35k... OK, I'd had a good year, but the point stuck.

Or you could point out that Philip Green took a £1.2bn dividend and paid no tax at all. Why isn't he being persecuted rather than knighted...?

Because he can afford to take a £65,000 annual holiday in the Carribean rubbing shoulders with Simon Cowell and other super rich folk, that's why! He's to powerful and rich, in other words, and he and others like him are the big business 'tail that wags the dog' (the government).

Unfair though, as you say.

[Ardesco]

but the activity we are engaged in is not illegal.

Never said we were, just said that some do.

[Bluebird]

This being said, I'm sure there are just as many permies engaging in illegal activity as there are contractors.

but the activity we are engaged in is not illegal.

[Ardesco]

The attitude of (some) contractors at client sites doesn't help this, of course.

tim

Agreed, not to mention the fact that there are some contractors out there who are blatantly breaking the law and actually paying nothing, however they will get caught eventually and they will regret it.

This being said, I'm sure there are just as many permies engaging in illegal activity as there are contractors.

[tim123]

Permies are not going to get thier head around corporation tax, the fact we don't get benefits like sick pay, holiday, pension, etc. and the fact that we don't have a guaranteed income. They all think we are living an easy life of loads of money, no risk and we are just not paying tax that we should so that we can give them the two fingers.

The attitude of (some) contractors at client sites doesn't help this, of course.

tim

[malvolio]

About six months back, someone in the local pub challenged me as being a tax-avoiding wotsit. I pointed out that my overall tax bill for the year was greater than his gross salary of around £35k... OK, I'd had a good year, but the point stuck.

Or you could point out that Philip Green took a £1.2bn dividend and paid no tax at all. Why isn't he being persecuted rather than knighted...?

[Ardesco]

Stop being so miserable.

If people cause the government enough trouble they abandon laws i.e. poll tax or find it very difficult to enforce them.

The problem is that the government has been doing a hatchet job in the press on IT contractors in the press for years. They have convinced the vast majority that we are all illegally dodging tax and not paying anything while the permies pay the tax we should be paying for us.

Permies are not going to get thier head around corporation tax, the fact we don't get benefits like sick pay, holiday, pension, etc. and the fact that we don't have a guaranteed income. They all think we are living an easy life of loads of money, no risk and we are just not paying tax that we should so that we can give them the two fingers.

By making it an attack against IT contractors they have probably got a load of other small businesses (plumbers, shops, builders, etc.) to agree to the idea of this legislation without actually understanding the consequences for themselves.

With this in mind no matter how much we shout there will be a sizeable majority who will say that it is a good idea and "only fair".

The sickening thing is that the people that are really taking the piss and not paying thier way are the manual labourers who take cash in hand and don't declare it, or have thier company's in thier name and get the cheque cashed into thier personal account without going through the books, rather than into thier business account.

[SueEllen]

The e-petition is a waste of time IMHO. Write to your MP and complain about it, and if anyone tries to stiff you with a tax bill on this basis, appeal it as far as you can. But we will have to deal with in in April.

Don't bother writing if your MP is Labour though as only about 7% of them come from a business background. http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib...snsg-01528.pdf

Here is a link where you can fax your MP - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

[SueEllen]

didn't they just rename it council tax ?

Nope they went back to the rates system, tinkered with it to add discounts and came up with a brand new name - "council tax"

[malvolio]

They're not going to change their mind, the decision has been made. It's wrong, vindictive, damaging and ill-conceived, but that's never stopped them yet. And if you use their own figures, it will bring in around £230m, which is 10% of bugger all - 0.4% of their commitment to Northern Rock, for example. So it's not being done to plug a yawning gap in tax income.

The e-petition is a waste of time IMHO. Write to your MP and complain about it, and if anyone tries to stiff you with a tax bill on this basis, appeal it as far as you can. But we will have to deal with in in April.

[tim123]

Stop being so miserable.

If people cause the government enough trouble they abandon laws i.e. poll tax or find it very difficult to enforce them.

And how is 2000 people filling in an e-petition going to do this?

Even if it were 20,000, it still isn't going to make them change their mind.

(I was born miserable BTW).

tim

[Bluebird]

Stop being so miserable.

If people cause the government enough trouble they abandon laws i.e. poll tax or find it very difficult to enforce them.

didn't they just rename it council tax ?

[SueEllen]

You are on to a loser.

It was bleeding obvious to all that IF HMRC lost the Arctic case NL were going to change the law so that this wasn't to be allowed in future.

Any (interested party) who thought otherwise was living in a fantasy world.

The best that you can hope for is a tweaking of the proposed rules, complete abandonment is as likely as my winning the lottery (I never by a ticket).

tim

Stop being so miserable.

If people cause the government enough trouble they abandon laws i.e. poll tax or find it very difficult to enforce them.

[tim123]

So HMRC lost the Arctic Systems case and now want to stop us from running our companies the way that we were actually told to years ago!

You are on to a loser.

It was bleeding obvious to all that IF HMRC lost the Arctic case NL were going to change the law so that this wasn't to be allowed in future.

Any (interested party) who thought otherwise was living in a fantasy world.

The best that you can hope for is a tweaking of the proposed rules, complete abandonment is as likely as my winning the lottery (I never by a ticket).

tim

[Bluebird]

41 members of of.....

now