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The fallout from the ‘fiscal event’ shows no sign of abating. Indeed I hesitate to write too much about it in case events overtake us in the short period between me writing this and you reading it*. But, taking due account of that risk, we are publishing a number of articles this week to explain some of the key changes and discuss their impact. One of the biggest surprises in the statement was the decision to scrap the reforms to the off-payroll working rules in their entirety from 6 April. The move has prompted very different reactions from within the tax community and we have commissioned two articles, which take quite different perspectives, so that readers can get a flavour of the issues at stake. We do hope you will enjoy reading these. I am sure that this will not be the last word on the matter – I fear that the debates about the proper way of taxing contractors will continue for years to come. I am not qualified to discuss the economics of all this and the magazine is resolutely apolitical. However, I can comment on the tax aspects. All I will say is that there must be something fundamentally wrong with the way that tax policy is designed and implemented when we end up with the monster of a National Insurance contributions table that we include on page 19. We are very grateful to Linda for crunching through the numbers for us so expertly. Is it really reasonable, though, to expect employers, with everything else they are facing at the moment, to have deal with this? Tax simplification anyone?
(* as Monday’s events indeed proved!)
If you do one thing…
Review HMRC’s revised guidance on special reduction for penalties in its Compliance Handbook at CH170000 (tinyurl.com/ebftmh8n).
