Tax is for the little people

Tax Return [Public domain], TaxRebate.org.uk via Flickr.
As you probably all know by now, I can’t stand the BBC.  I can’t stand its moral duplicity, its hypocrisy, its cultural Marxist innate bias, its control of the narrative, its unending support of the debased Global Warming religion, its unique way that people are forced to pay for it and the way it continues to recruit those of a similar mindset who are willing to spread their repulsive message of Marxist faith.

Which is why I haven’t funded them for over 7 years and have spent the £1,000+ saved on myself and my family.  Legally.  Easily.  I strongly encourage you all to do the same to rid us of this treacherous beast.

However, it’s the hypocrisy of the BBC that I really despise.

So it’s a wonderful opportunity, when the so-called BBC have been caught with their liar-liar, Marxist pants on fire, that I can dwell in the wallowing comfort and glow of schadenfreude.

First, a bit of background.

In the 90’s it was suddenly fashionable for large and small enterprises to sack their employees on Friday and bring them back in on Monday as “consultants”.  The problem was, they were doing exactly the same job as they were on Friday.  They also had the same bosses, who told them what to do each day.

So why did companies do this?  Well, like most things, it’s all about money.  When you employ someone, it’s quite expensive.  You have to pay for their labour, holidays, sick pay, pensions, liability insurance, equipment and a whole host of other things that most people don’t realise.  Also, you have to pay Employers National Insurance (13.8%).  That’s a fuck load of money and it is why employees are the first to go when it’s twitchy bum time.

But guess what?  If you turn around to your employees and say, “Look guys, if you Incorporate as consultants, we’ll hire you back again and you can carry on doing what you were doing last week”, then it’s bingo!  Suddenly the company has just saved itself a whole raft of liabilities: they don’t pay sick pay, don’t pay for the new consultant’s liability insurance, no pension, no maternity/paternity leave, no Employers NI and with the added advantage they can now terminate their contracts with ease and expediency while ignoring all those nasty EU introduced employee protection laws.

Empty bottles of champagne all around in the BBC boardroom.

As National Insurance revenue dropped, in 1999 as part of the Budget, Gordon Brown (who could have guessed, eh?) announced a series of measures that would counter the legal tax avoidance by the use of Personal Service Companies – one man Limited Companies.  In all the glory that Gordon “Midas touch, sell gold low” Brown ensues, the one-eyed Scottish idiot devised a new tax called IR35 that would in effect “double tax” Personal Services Companies as though they were employees of the hiring company, but none of the benefits of being an employee (sick pay, health, pensions etc).

Of course, what the stupid see-you-next-Tuesday hadn’t envisaged is that there are genuine contractors and consultants, like myself, that operate legitimately through a Limited Company that are experts and are hired by one or more companies for a set project, that are vital to the functions of business and often hire other consultants as subcontractors.  And those consultants are taking all the risks, but
it’s their work/lifestyle choice.

So, as always with government intervention and the inevitability of ill thought-out legislation, confusion prevailed and genuine businesses were targeted and in a stroke made them uncompetitive.  And of course, in all government ways, the cost of running these inquiries was more expensive than the additional tax revenue it raised, so the taxpayers were shafted too.

The IT industry was first targeted – an unrepresented, growing, wealthy demographic – that pretty much caused misery to many, especially as investigations cost money, time and ultimately ended up in the bankruptcy of many businesses.  That and the number of Tier 1 and 2 visas issued meant that we were the first to see the impact and the uncompetitiveness of massive immigration and offshoring.

Now there are three types of Contractors: temps, disguised employees and genuine Business-to- Businesses.  The problem with the new regulations is that it cannot differentiate between the three easily, although there are some cases of deliberate tax avoidance, which in reality, is just the hiring company “avoiding” Employers National Insurance.

And be in no doubt when it comes to your money, everyone in the government is thirsty for more.  The Tories promised to remove this ridiculous tax, but like all bastards, they reneged on their promise and have instead made this tax even more aggressive.

So when I see my industry being savaged relentlessly over the decade by the MSM, falsely calling us “tax evaders” for instance, especially the Grauniad and the BBC, it gives me great pleasure to find out that they themselves have been deliberately exploiting this situation as well (as do all the celebrities, comedians and footballers).

When you are investigated, not only does it cost a fortune for hiring solicitors and tax advisers, but if HMRC sniff something juicy, they can go back to year 2000 to all your tax records.  So imagine all the additional tax they will find.  If you are caught by IR35, you are effectively taxed as an employee (more so in some respects).

These presenters on £100,000+ “salaries”, exclusively hired by the BBC as “disguised employees” are going to be paying back 20% additional tax per year plus fines and penalties for every year they have incorporated, and including the return of their “expenses” that they avoided by putting it through their limited company.

I can smell the fear from here, and I’m bloody loving it.  It’s a ridiculous tax law, but the biggest hypocrites to my industry have been the BBC, and so to see them hoist by their own petard is truly wonderful.

May they all burn in tax hell.
 

© Beware of Geeks bearing GIFs 2016