A Tory Chancellor has just abandoned the self-employed

[longfingernails]

Hammond has raised class 4 NICs and cut the dividend allowance. AIBU to believe this is unacceptable. We need to be a low tax capitalist country which does everything to encourage entrepreneurs, whose animal spirits aren't dampened by high job taxes.

We should instead cut NI for all employers/employees. An easy initial cost saving is cutting international aid. We can also improve efficiency in public services through greater private provision, reducing the benefits cap, etc.

WHERE IS MY LAMBO??? I didnt know being self-employed meant getting one of them, shit I've been missing out all these years (17 of them). I blame my accountant, maybe if I'd used PWC I'd have a lambo too?

Too many well paid self employed people were fucking about with dividends to avoid paying anywhere near the same amount of tax as similarly paid employed people and too many low paid people are in the clutches of agencies and umbrella companies who make them pretend to be self employed so the company that actually employs them can avoid a huge amount of tax and NI that should be paid.

The well paid self employed should pay their fair share and the low paid 'self employed' should have the same rights as other workers without being exploited as is currently the case.

Where do I sign up for a Lambo? (No idea what a Lambo is, but it appears as a self-employed person I ought to have one).

TinfoilHattie a lamboghini is a very expensive car

I agree Barbara.

I appear to have misplaced my Lambo

It's shit for us. I'm employed in the public sector and currently working out how I'm going to spend my 1per cent pay rise

While Dp is self employed and not looking furward to paying even more NI contributions. It's not like either of us earns a fortune and he has no holiday or sick pay and increasingly freelance is the only way he can get work.

Even worse for young people and those Deliveroo drivers.

As other posters have pointed out, in fact very few self-employed people are company directors driving tax-deductible Lamborghinis.

Over the last few years, many people have found themselves self-employed as a result of practices such as the introduction of zero-hour contracts.

And it can't be stressed enough that self-employed people do not have the same benefits as people who count as 'employed by a company' - e.g. no sick pay, no holiday pay, no maternity/paternity pay and no employers contributing towards their pensions.

Speaking as someone who is self-employed through choice, though not earning a lot of money, I can say I don't begrudge paying an extra 1 or 2% in NICs. However, DP and I are not on the breadline, we don't have children, we don't need to claim tax credits and we aren't applying for a mortgage. How can low-earning self-employed people manage if only a couple of those things apply to them?

I can imagine that self-employed people on low incomes who have not chosen to be self-employed but have effectively been forced in to it because no other work is available - e.g. certain taxi drivers - must be counting every penny and will be worrying about how they can pay this extra tax (I agree with pp that NICs ARE just tax by another name).

Totally agree with this: just wish that the govt had had the balls to get rid of NI and make one tax. but cant see anyone doing this in a hurry. always better to hide taxes and create new ones than to be honest and transparent about what this govt is costing us and whether or not we feel that what we pay across all of our taxes

I have never voted Tory in my life (and I am OLD ), but frankly I am puzzled as to why Philip "Pomposity" Hammond thinks this will go down well among Tory voters.

I am a director of a small ltd and I think we have been a bit squeezed this budget. They are also doing away with flat rate vat too, where I charge 20%, but only pay 14.5%.

So will probably just deregister as I am just under threshold. So less VAT being paid overall - very short sighted!

However my company is getting a 1% corporation tax saving wahooo!

Perhaps I shall use it to find a better accountant who will tell me about all these loop holes, I am clearly missing out on something here....

Like a previous poster I am self employed because with a severely disabled son I am frankly unemployable. I drive an old, small car. To be frank I am far more concerned by the way this govt has repeatedly shafted the most vulnerable such as the disabled than how they have affected my NI contributions. Heck if it forces some 'natural tories' to wake up and recognise what a bunch of bastards they are it's worth every penny.

The thing is, it's not about self employed paying the same rate as the rest of you. Being self employed is much, much harder and without people having the courage to become self employed to start with, none of you workers would have a job!

My animal spirit would actually pay more to see the NHS and education get more funding and some of the horrifying cuts in benefits to very, very vulnerable people reversed.

Our corporation tax is being reduced over the next two years anyway....so meh it will cancel out...

...and I'm sorry but I very much resent being called a natural Tory because I'm self employed and a high earner.

I am not a Tory thank you.

makes a change from them attacking the poor and disabled - didn't hear many 'animal spirits' standing up for them so why should we give a shit?

My ex is self employed - earns a very good living, employs staff ...votes Labour

Lots of self employed people are left wing

The Tories want one thing and one thing only.

To make sure that the super rich remain rich. And that the poor get poorer because it is their own fault that they're poor according to Theresa May.

TBH I'm not even sure what the Tories stand for anymore. Or labour.

anyway aren't we all in this together

I do think that bringing NI for the self-employed up to a similar rate to employees is a not quite "making things equal". Employed people have more protection in terms of sick pay, paid holiday, maternity pay etc. That is worth something financially. There are other positives for being self-employed, lower NI was one of them.

I suppose that the problem is that the chancellor needs more cash at the moment, especially given the uncertainty regarding our future.

I am self employed. I don't get sick pay, holiday pay, a pension NOTHING. If I am sick I lose a days pay. If I want to go on holiday I lose pay. If a job I have in my diary gets cancelled out of my cancellation period I get nothing. Even though I may have turned down work from another source that day.

I have no employment rights AT ALL. I can be (and have been) bullied and discriminated against at work. There is nothing I can do. The law doesn't (and never has) covered me.

Yes it's my choice to do what I do. But at my age now it just wouldn't be possible for me to get another job.

I expect the tread has moved on since the first page, I cba reading it all. But For the record, I'm self employed, and would sooner stick pins in my eyes than vote UKIP or the current brand of Tory. Kindly do not lump me in with those scumbags.

I'm a higher tax payer self employed person. I'm happy to pay more NI as my pension will be the same as PAYE. I want statutory maternity pay in that case though (even though I'm now too old for it).
Make the benefits the same and the reason for lower NI contributions vanishes.

re previous comments most super rich are self employed. Very few are PAYE.

I wish the self employed were vetted for CMS like ordinary people

Self employed - due to lots of issues and eventually found feet running own company. No annual leave, no sick pay, no workers' rights.

Maybe I should raise my prices to compensate for this and to be able to provide annual leave income and sick pay insurance.

But raising prices doesn't go down well as people especially on MN often don't realise the hidden costs in running a company.

Oh - and never voted Tory in my life. But I do see the benefits of a low tax economy to encourage growth. I just can't help wanting to tell Tory Ministers to fuck off when I see them on TV.

This.