[Wolves] Re: Wolves Linux Advocacy

[smid]

h.berry at blueyonder.co.uk wrote:

> As for IR35, being PAYE this has not registered on the radar. I looked 
> it up and It all seems part of that grey area where tax evasion and 
> tax avoidance co-habit. I think it is everyones' entitlement to avoid 
> paying more tax than they should. But people a rarely so reticent when 
> it comes to claiming benefits.
>
> I think that's what they call a diplomatic dead bat!
>
Spoken exactly like a government minister who has a party line to toe, 
and won't answer basic questions. Ok,
so you just looked it up, but it shows the same level of information 
Dawn Primarolo, the Paymaster general exhibits.

IR35 complaints have never been about it simply being a tax 
evasion/avoidance. It was more to do with being a
blanket applied, hazily worded act and almost certainly aimed at IT 
contractors. If you speak to the vast majority
of contractors at that time, they believe that some were abusing the tax 
system, yes, (5k wages and rest of wages
paid as dividends), and most would agree something should be done to fix 
the tax system. But IR35 was like a
sledgehammer to crack a nut.

It has simply made less tax brought in (a lot of contractors have went 
permanent since it came in, larger slice
of smaller pie) and administration costs along with legal costs for the 
revenue have went up. Its produced none
of the results, and most IT contractors live in fear of it, with court 
cases being won and lost to this day, clarifying
it no more. So its decimated the IT contractors, and not achieved any 
more tax pounds.

Oh yeah, and current stats on the contractor website www.shout99.com 
(1999 was when IR35 came in), shows that
only 5% of their visitors will vote Labour again. 

There have been tories which have attempted to raise questions on IR35 
in parliment, but no labour MPs, and that
sort of shows why I wont vote labour again. And believe you me, I hate 
the tories...

Sorry for flying off topic from the list. Some might wonder why they 
should feel sympathetic towards such high
paid contractors. Well, a lot of them are sitting at home unemployed at 
the moment, looking to see which open
source project raises their interest....

    Smid