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9am Lowdown: Deloitte opens Blockchain lab

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25th May 2016
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Deloitte will be opening a Blockchain lab in Dublin which will develop functioning prototypes for financial services clients.

According to finextra, the EMEA financial services blockchain lab will accommodate a team of 50 people. Deloitte has already in the process of developing 20 blockchain-related prototypes. This follows Deloitte partnering with five blockchain companies.

Deloitte Ireland’s David Dalton said: "By bringing together the best of Deloitte experts and building upon our capabilities, we believe our lab will play a significant role in lifting blockchain use to a new level." 

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RHA debunks evasion myths

The Road haulage Association (RHA) has debunked myths held by a growing number of lorry drivers committing tax evasion as it supports HMRC in its enforcement efforts.

For example, RHA director of policy Jack Semple says: “One myth is that you can set up a personal service company and think that allows you to be a self-employed lorry driver for other people. It doesn’t. Another myth is that if you drive for several firms, not just one, you can be self-employed. The number of firms you drive for is irrelevant. The rule is that when you drive for another firm, or for a whole serious of other firms, you have to be treated as an employee on all occasions.

The effect of non-complying drivers is hitting the haulier industry by undercutting on haulage rates, and causing compliant firms to lose drivers, which ultimately leads to losing work, says Semple. The RHA has recently presented its case in the House of Commons.

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Accountex video of the day

In this morning’s Accountex video of the day, FreeAgent’s founder and CEO Ed Molyneux chats with AccountingWEB about what a modern practice looks like. Molyneux also touches on Making Tax Digital. 

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By drakeltd
01st Jun 2016 10:45

If a postman delivers a letter for me, does he work for me? Does he also work for all the other letter senders?

In terms of IR35, which is what is really being discussed here, does this mean that if the IR35 rules apply then the worker has access to all the trappings of employment ie holiday pay, pension rights from the engager and also the government provided social support eg work seekers allowance, housing support etc?
If not then why not?

Why do we persist in arguing over IR35. The answer is simple. If the client wants a worker then choose either (1) an employee and the employee trappings are provided or (2) engage a company and simply pay a fee.
The worker can also choose either (1) be an employee and accept the salary and employee trappings or (2) provide a service and reject the employee trappings and government support.
If the relationship between the engager and the worker is employee then PAYE is paid (to finance the government benefits). If the relationship is provision of services then corporate tax rules apply, which are the same for all companies.

The main question to ask of the worker is: does the worker want to be an employee of the engager or not? Simple!

I would have thought that the mere fact that an engager has entered into a contract for services with a limited company and a worker has set up a limited company and signed a contract for services answers that question quite emphatically.

I think the facts underlying the statement "The effect of non-complying drivers is hitting the haulier industry by undercutting on haulage rates, and causing compliant firms to lose drivers, which ultimately leads to losing work" need to be examined.

Typically an employee is paid whether or not work is needed to be performed. This means the haulage rate needs to compensate for this inefficient process.
Contract workers (non-compliant in your statement) are paid, usually at higher rates, only for the work that is done.
So the haulage rate can be lower especially when there is low demand. The contract worker's higher rate of pay is to cover the worker's time when not engaged, which effectively is accepting the hauliers risk of no work.

"Compliant" firms may be losing drivers, because the drivers wish to work as self-employed contractors for various reasons. Higher pay is the normally accepted understanding by "compliant" hauliers, however ask the worker and you may be surprised that 'quality of life' and 'control of one's own destiny' figure extremely highly and sometimes even higher than remuneration!

One needs to be careful using the expression "non-compliant" as the workers may be following the corporate rules and even though this may be distasteful it is fully compliant.
We should be grateful for the disruption and we all should be looking to make all processes as efficient as possible with due care taken to ensure that all standards are maintained and possibly improved.
For example the internet is an immensely disruptive force and we should embrace its movement towards an efficient society.

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