The end

[Fred Bloggs]

People could join some organisation that fights for the rights of independent professionals and the self-employed. All coming together to fight a common cause and all that.

Hey, I've got a great idea. Let's start something called the Professional Contractors Group. We could be all noisy and rabble rousing and be a pain in the government's side. For 18 years we could prevent the nasty Mr Brown and his pals from taxing us to oblivion. We could even take a case to the very top of the UK legal profession and win!

(But then we could overnight start saying we represented the self employed, like Deliveroo and Uber workers or Plumbers. Then we could cuddle up to the government and have tea and biccies. We could even fight for and obtain employees rights that we say we don't want. And then when the person who doesn't want to be an employee is declared one, we can claim a victory. And, we could sell out all those public sector Ltd Co contractors who we said we were going to fight for to keep them out of the very legislation we were founded to fight against. And then one day, we found we'd accidentally thrown all of us under the very same bus. Great idea eh?) Shame on you PCG/IPSE, shame on you with the snouts in the trough fiddling while Rome burnt to cinder.

[Fred Bloggs]

Good luck all you temporary employees.

Well, it has arrived bang on time. April 2020. I hope you all enjoy your new found employment along with all the employment rights you fought for but "didn't really want". Don't say you weren't warned, it's taken over twenty years to happen but now reality has caught up with you. Most of you will finally be recognised as the bum on a seat temporary employee you always were. You had a great run pretending to be "real businesses", but now, in line with just about everywhere else in the world, you've become temps. The last two or three years I have met a lot of ex-contractors from the UK in various parts of the world. I guess in the next year or so, I'll be meeting many more who, like me have voted with our feet. The UK chancellor now gets a bit fat zero from me and many others despite me earning more now than I ever did back in good old Blighty. Good luck guys/ladies, see you soon.

[BR14]

. It's like to trying to reduce drug usage by increasing tax on heroine.

[PerfectStorm]

What are you panicking about? Almost nothing has changed.

[NotAllThere]

So, that's that then I guess. No more contracting, unless we can fight it as a group and gain enough traction with Tory MPs to stop it by 2020. Not much chance of that, but you have to try.

Won't somebody think of the accountants?

Oh. Is it 1999 again?

[vwdan]

Everything to play for. There will be a lot of conversation s between Finance and HR departments in the next 18 months and it was never totally adopted in the public sector.

The problem is, and for a Tory government I'm surprised they can't grasp this, is that contractors don't just randomly exist. There's a market for it and if the private sector knows one thing, it's how to get what they want even if it means "working around" the rules.

The demand for contractors and what we do isn't just going to disappear, the roles aren't going to disappear, the work that needs doing isn't going to just disappear. It's like to trying to reduce drug usage by increasing tax on heroine.

[SussexSeagull]

Everything to play for. There will be a lot of conversation s between Finance and HR departments in the next 18 months and it was never totally adopted in the public sector.

[vwdan]

People said the same when IR35 was introduced, when it was reformed, when it hit the Public Sector and hey, guess what. We are still here.

Far too much to go on between now and then to be throwing the towel in.

I've spent a lot of my life being cynical, but I'm actually quite optimistic over this. I honestly think there'll be a brave new world for contractors who want to do 'real' contracting and can hold their nerve.

I've spent so much time persuading clients to treat me as a B2B that I find myself quite looking forward to it. Life's too short to let this define me - I contract for a large variety of reasons, and hopefully, most of those will still be valid.

[amrhady]

People said the same when IR35 was introduced, when it was reformed, when it hit the Public Sector and hey, guess what. We are still here.

Far too much to go on between now and then to be throwing the towel in.

Exactly this. Way too early to conclude anything, wait and see how the market will respond.

Also be sure there will be considerable pressure on the government between now and Apr2020, which could work to some extent.

[northernladuk]

People said the same when IR35 was introduced, when it was reformed, when it hit the Public Sector and hey, guess what. We are still here.

Far too much to go on between now and then to be throwing the towel in.