Self employed and renters have been completey shafted.

[Greysparkles]

Just that really.

Have not RTFT - but to reply to the OP: YES, 100%.

Same situation as you OP. Pretty much penny for penny.
It's absolutely shite. Sorry others are in the same position.
I'm just hoping this fucking virus fucks off soon and life can go back to usual.
Job was abruptly halted, all similar contracts halted. No movement forward for any.
3 contracts H was due to start, first 2 shelved the night before. 3rd he went to meet PM, who's wife diagnosed with CV. Workers onsite got wind, most left. Most refused to come back. Job is on hold now like the others.

Where does all this nonsense come from about the self-employed paying less tax?

Opendraw you pay less NI that is a fact, it works out to around £335 on 25k. However you missed the point of my post it was aimed at the amount of people saying that about the self employed and using it as a reason why they should get almost fuck all. Im self employed myself ive had to cancel all none emergency work for domestic and commercial customers, its a shit storm and noone seems to give a fuck just sit back going "hurr hurr you should have prepared" We prepare for foreseeable events this isnt one of them

Snorkelface Iamawombat (yes, indeed the poster is) is on a mission to goad when people are trying to work out how they or a family member will cope over the next few weeks and months.

I'm not sure that paying £335 less on £25K works out as equivalent to being able to pay SSP and having employer contributions to a pension.

I would happily pay another £335 each year to have those benefits.

Maybe there could be an option for employed people to receive an extra £335 a year and NOT have those benefits?

That doesn't sound so attractive, does it? (Not that I think it should happen, but this 'paying less into the system' line just isn't true.)

Self employed are always the last to be considered.
We only have my self employed husband's income and lead life accordingly
No holidays no eating out no treats. But now we have no income whatsoever.

Self employed people pay less tax than those employed. If they want the same benefits, fair enough but they should be paying the same tax

Many people are 'self employed' not by choice but by being forced to by unscrupulous employers exploiting loopholes to avoid paying employer's national insurance and giving employment benefits like holiday and sick pay.

Eg Uber drivers, Deliveroo, many in the construction industry, the entertainment industry which depends heavily on freelance labour to build stages, move equipment etc and many of these people have seen all their work and hence income vanish overnight. It's not all highly paid contractors offering professional services for X hundred pounds a day via limited companies.

The suggestion to pay 80% of last year's declared income is a good one.

Apologies, I haven't been able to read the full thread, but here is the guidance that my letting agent has sent me:

If a tenant express genuine concern over their ability to pay rent, there are three options open to you:

1. To do nothing;
2. To contact your buy-to-let lender and request a mortgage ‘holiday’ because the tenant is currently unable to pay their rent. However, they are not obliged to offer anything;
3. To reach an agreement with your tenant for them to pay less or a small proportion of rent for a few months. Once the tenant begins working again the parties could reach a further agreement to clear the arrears.

Naturally we are sympathetic to the financial situation that all individuals and businesses find themselves in but any deviation from the agreed monthly rent is a private arrangement between the landlord and tenant.

Currently (as we understand from the Government guidance) a landlord can serve notice BUT this cannot be enforced during the next three months. Bailiffs have been told to stand down and are not legally permitted to undertake any evictions for the time being. If a landlord has been granted possession by a court and the tenant has not vacated as per the possession order, a landlord can apply for a bailiff warrant and wait for the ban to be lifted allowing the warrant to be carried out.

For anyone concerned, please do contact your letting agent/landlord and advise them, as they may be open to arranging a rent reduction or holiday if circumstance allow. I am a landlord but will be providing rent holidays if needed, because I don't want my tenants to lose their home on top of everything else. Any good landlord has funds saved to meet their responsibilities (mortgage, unexpected repairs etc) and insurances in place, so don't suffer in silence and please do ask.

Sorry should have said first and final paragraphs are mine (posting via the app would not let me edit the text format).

I’m lucky to still have work, but I’m a carer so will always be needed. Yet I’m on minimum wage, and putting myself at risk by still working with vulnerable people. And those who are temporarily off work will be earning more than me from the government.. literally if I pack my job in I’ll be getting paid more money as the base rate. Ridiculous. I’ve done 72 hours last week, had 2 days off and now doing 60 hours. All 12 hour nightshifts too which nobody else wants to do and which is making it very difficult to try to get to the shops for food while they still have it. I didn’t eat anything yesterday and then had to come to work tonight. Do I quit my job so I can get more money without all the stress of work? Bonkers

** zsazsajuju

Self employed people pay less tax than those employed. If they want the same benefits, fair enough but they should be paying the same tax.

As for calling people who are potentially losing their jobs “selfish, nasty bastards” well words fail me.*

SE pay marginally less because they ALREADY get fewer benefits out of the system. 80% salary is a benefit that PAYE was never designed to cover - its a nonsense to claim that PAYE tax and NI rates will cover this and were set at a rate designed to do that. C’mon - you must see that right? Paying PAYE 80% salary is going to add to the national debt for years to come. A debt that EVERYONE will be paying back in their tax. SE have clear tax records so there is a viable record of earnings. the inequity is clear.

That should say ‘visible’ tax record.

My OH’s work dried up weeks ago because of this virus. We aren’t entitled to Universal credit or other benefits. I’m damned If I understand why he gets nothing with a full tax and NI record going back 9 years and others, including those with no record, get 80%.

@lozster completely agree my DP self employed 19 years.....get fuck all (excuse my language I don't usually swear) pays his tax and national insurance every month.... no work now, no income not entitled to universal credit (I'm assuming as I work , I can't seem to find anything anywhere if its an automatic right to the £94 a week regardless of household income) BUT why should we clog up a benefit system that is alreasy not working, weeks of backlogs... yet someone PAYE will get 80% of their earnings.... the way 2 individuals have been treated by the government is so so unfair... the weekly minimum wage for 40 hours a week should have been given to the self employed. It's still less than my DP earnings BUT we could survive....

BTW....I have emailed our local MP to ask he chancellor for an explanation as to why there is such a difference in PAYE and Self employed. Theres 2 similar threads running about the self employed the other about Rushi Sunsks speech... cant remember which thread it was on but a few others have emailed their MP too.

I will also be emailing my MP

Just listening on BBC 1 - the mp kept dodging the self-employed question & kept saying they are supporting the whole economy. No answer to ‘Will new measures be announced for SE ? ‘

those who think that the SE pay less tax.
Nope. Not here. Maybe less NI, but certainly not tax. I also have no right to sick pay, paid holidays, benefits and I have to always plan for the next opportunity or disaster ahead.

Construction workers working on site will not even benefit from the delayed tax bill, their tax is deducted weekly from their wages by the main contractor.

I agree with @Bflatmajorsharp I don’t think I pay less of anything I declare all my income and yes I made the choice to go SE mainly because our childcare system is a load of crap. You would be jumping through many hoops to get sick pay orunemploymeny or insurance because it’s so hard to quantify when you are officially out of business. It’s bloody insulting for you to say fact I pay less NI that can’t be right as we all need to pay in a certain amount to get full state pension. Which now given the latest crisis will probably be when we are 90. People like you really annoy me

I think giving 80% of. Sole traders earnings would be fair and correct

As someone else said we will be helping to pay this off too for years to come sorry feel a full rant coming on

I have to always plan for the next opportunity or disaster ahead

Yes, a lot of us will have a long and stressful slog to rebuild our businesses. Of course that's better than people who lose jobs or businesses completely, but it could take years of recovery, which is why lots of us are reluctant to take loans and get into debt we can't pay off.

Self employed with one employee. I can't find the 80% of her salary with nothing coming in.

Today, many childminders are writing to their MP. Please join us doing this.

@juicyfrooty - exactly! CIS deductions as a flat rate of 20%from the first penny. Both H and I.

@TabbyStar, exactly. Were in construction, theres talk in our area of rates dropping by 40% because many who are still managing to work are doing so by just dropping their rate. It fucks everyone else over and themselves essentially because they're losing out on 40% of their rate, and it's not magically going to go up after this is out of the way. Itll be a fight to get rates up again or just lose out on certain contracts.

I'd like to see some real help for those of us who are SE.

Personally, I dont see this not bankrupting both me and DH. If it goes on for a month, we may crawl out of this, on our knees. If it last for 3 months I'm not sure what will happen.

I'm sorry to anyone else going through this. Its heartbreaking.
I'm going to log off because I think that I'm just depressing myself realising more by the moment how fucked we are by this.

Wishing everyone manages it out the other side alright.