This week's opinion: 26 March 2020

Normally, I write my editorials on a Friday morning but this week I decided to delay so that I could keep up with developments. I am glad I did because it enabled me to reflect on the Friday evening announcements on tax by the chancellor. Truly we live in extraordinary times. There was a time, not that many years ago, when up to 83% of income was taken away under PAYE – now the government is going to be paying 80% of most incomes just to keep the country afloat. 

At the time of writing there is little detail of how this will work and I suspect that many of us will be working long hours trying, first, to understand what is involved and, second, to explain it to clients. There has clearly been much burning of the midnight oil in the Treasury and at HMRC and, although there is still much to do (particularly for the self-employed), it is right that we acknowledge the hard work that has been done to get us to a position which would have been unimaginable only a week ago.

One thing does concern me. There has been a lot of traffic on the internet from people – not advisers – looking for loopholes to exploit. I have seen comments about backdating salary increases, calling dividends salary or artificially bringing family members on the payroll so that they can then be laid off. 

It may be only a tiny minority of people suggesting such things but it will become difficult if pressure is put on agents to go along with any of it. We want to help clients, but not those who are trying to play the system. I hope that we as a profession will not hesitate to call out inappropriate behaviour.