As bond market vigilantes digest the budget one group of working people is reeling from Reeves’ tax raid. Self-employed contractors…
Self-employed workers like IT contractors are prevented by HMRC rules known as IR35 from forming limited companies to interact with clients. Instead they are forced into classification as equivalent employees who have to be managed and paid by parasitic “umbrella companies,” which force them to pay the employer’s share of NICs along with additional fees. There are 700,000 UK self-employed in the umbrella system. 2.1% of the entire workforce…
A reduction of the threshold at which employers pay NI from 9,500 to 5,000 costs £650 on its own – that’s £455 million confiscated from self-employed workers. Then comes the 1.2% hike. Guido has spoken to self-employment representatives who say the additional cost for a median salary self-employed contractor will be between £700 and £950. No doubt Labour will come up with some reason for them to not be classed as ‘working people’…
Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, says this “hammer blow” is a “clear breach of government’s pledge not to raise taxes on working people. For many umbrella workers, this will cost them in excess of a thousand pounds per year.” Labour’s manifesto said it had a plan for the self-employed, who “face unique challenges.” At least they didn’t lie about that one…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”