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.

I suppose what I mean is, Sun readers...

BUT what struck me was that it's going to affect their Tory voting white van type trade professions

First they came for the disabled
Then they came for the people on benefits.
Then they came for the public sector

And I did nothing

Then they came for white van man...

:o
I don't have much sympathy either I just don't understand why they would do that to a high proportion of people who vote for them. Still it highlights who they are really looking after.

Next...it will be the rich pensioners...

They've run out of people to hit who they don't care about.

Meanwhile...corporation tax is going down from 20% to 17% over the next few years.

Will have to look at my salary / NI / dividends to work out the most tax efficient system.

Meanwhile...corporation tax is going down from 20% to 17% over the next few years.
Quite

My DH is self employed. There's many benefits to being so. There's the obvious risks such as job security, no holiday pay etc.

Yes many trades people take cash and never declare it. But bear in mind this that how do you think tradespeople get mortgages? If they hid everything as cash then their income would seem very low. They wouldn't pay much tax. Yep that's right. But they also would not be able to borrow money for a mortgage or a personal loan.

many tradespeople do declare all their income and pay tax and have all the instability/risk AND get hauled over the coals when they want to borrow (I realise many employed people find it hard to borrow too).

Not everyone who's self employed is some sort of money grabbing tax evader.

Self employed people find it much harder to get a mortgage and need 3 years of accounts.

Some banks will give employed people a mortgage on 3 months pay slips.

But that employed person could be unemployed very quickly.

Self employed people are seen as much riskier and find loans / credit / applying for benefits very hard.

SE people are 15% of the economy.

Couldn't agree more @amispartacus

Having been through this ourselves recently!

Yes okay it's a rise in NI and we all take out the system. It's the tone that somehow "we've never had it so good" from the govt to SE people.

Yes they're some crooks who fiddle and dodge but yet again the minority have affected the majority who are not trying to do one!

I'd hazard a guess that those of us who are running businesses and/or are self employed and not trying to avoid tax are doing so because we/they are altruistic and realise not all they pay in, they benefit from. I'd hazard a guess they aren't the ones voting Tory who think people need to work harder and self fund.

I don't like posting on these threads (so why am I?!) . I live in a Tory stronghold so my views and guesses might be hazardous....

Brasty if your husband only works for one company then my understanding is that technically he can't be self employed. I know people who do this and it benefits both them and the employer and I wish that the inland revenue would clamp down on it.

Also I've just had an email from my accountant about scrapping the flat rate VAT scheme so that will make us worse off too.
The Tories really are going after the SE at the moment!!!

I could have sworn they said something about the party of business, small business, the entepreneur....

Did I mishear?

Oh - and something about growth, getting businesses to grow, create jobs and stimulate the economy...

And they had a go at Labour for wanting to tax people..

We know someone. Veryhighly paid self employed, he lists his wife as a director though she does nothing.
This is presumably similar to some MPs who employ family members on generous salaries?
He says he has a good accountant and is happy to tell us that he pays next to no tax.

I hope these measures affect people like him and not others who are struggling to make a living as self employed.

My DP has actually consulted a lawyer and been told he is self employed. I disagree. I think DP is not in reality. DP gets 3 monthly contracts.

hedgehog

There's also the allowance to get Employer's NI paid - if you employ someone, the Govt will pay £2000 of your NI bill a year. That's been used as a loophole to employ a spouse and reduce the costs involved with that.

It said in the Times that most people will pay an extra £20 a month.

You are self-employed, you set your own prices and can claw it back. If you are a plumber, for example, add £5 to each job for a week a month and you'll more than claw it back.

I can understand why small businesses feel annoyed they've been targeted over big business but £20 a month?

I think income tax and NI should be merged as well - stop insulting our intelligence.

I reckon it's gonna cost me £350-400 a year. I have no control over my rates, they are set by people I work for, so no chance to claw back.

Ami- sure he does that as well.
we know he has more than a million in one savings account alone. He is very well off

fairweather

Do you think that SE people should pay the same IF they don't get the same benefits from the NI system?

I think income tax and NI should be merged as well - stop insulting our intelligence

The NI system is so complicated. Class 1, Class 1 A etc etc

I sort of agree about merging NI and income tax though - they bang on and on about 'taking people out of tax altogether' - I wonder how many people believe that the Personal Allowance of 11k means they keep 11k, or whether they are aware that NICs will be taken out of that.

There are lots of us who are self employed who don't deal in cash at all. My dh is in a specialised role, he has to work for himself as he skills are only needed intermittently.

It seems than when people hear 'self employed' they link it to the trades which take cash and don't declare it.

I would love to know where all these tax fiddling accountants are, ours is as straight as they come. I am not going to risk a tax investigation and neither is he.

We know freelance camera operators , dog walkers etc. It's quite hard not to be self employed in those circumstances.
I would love the security of knowing that we have a set amount coming in each month.

NI is a tax. I don't know why it's separated.

Lower earning threshold, Upper earnings etc etc, P11D, benefits, etc etc.

I would love the security of knowing that we have a set amount coming in each month

So would I - but then I probably wouldn't spend as much time on MN