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It's the old adage. If you want a certain result you have to set your stall out in a certain way. I am a great believer in getting things right, right at the start. I always say to clients, the best way to get your tax bill down is to get it right from the start and record things at the time. That is why I think MTD (not in its present form or time scale) will benefit most business.
The main reason why employment status is challenged is because business get lazy. Set out your contract for service correctly and it will withstand any challenge.
I expect the video assistant referee (VAR) will put an end to the lack of "control" and in future referees will be unable to make any decisions without their PGMOL overlords permission.
I also believe the influence of the "big clubs" over the referees has not been fully considered. Surely this is undue influence, too!!
I am somewhat perplexed by this decision and the interpretation of tests for employment/self employment.
It is possible for a ref to withdraw but it is not possible for him to arrange for someone to appear in his place so I would have thought that indicated an element of control.
I note that "once the match begins, PGMOL have no say at all in how the referees carry out their task." and on the basis of this there is no deemed control.
This argument could be extended to almost anyone. The next time HMRC suggest that a construction worker is employed I wonder if the argument that they are not told how to lay the bricks or wire the electrics will be accepted?
The arguments about bricklayers was explored on Castle Construction. They were found not to be employees, and in fact self-employed.
Amusingly, HMRCs CEST tool gets the wrong answer for this case, which they freely admit to.
Another (I'm doing my Peter Cook El Wisty voice) interesting fact about the Castle Construction case was the judge commenting on the fact that if the bricklayers had been employed then they would not have earned as much money, and therefore less tax would be due than HMRC are trying to collect.
Apparently (sarcasm mode now), and HMRC aren't yet able to grasp this fanciful notion, people who freelance charge more than their permanent counterparts.
When an HMRC inspector's boiler breaks and a plumber turns up to fix it for the day, they should try paying by looking up the average annual salary for a full time plumber and offering him 1/365th for his work. Doh.
HMRC continue their search for these ghosts they called "deemed employees". Where are all these thousands of people they claim to exist? And if there are so many of them, then why are they having so much trouble collecting tax from them?
Does Occcams razor apply here....maybe, just maybe, "deemed employment" is an invention by HMRC used to gather more tax, and that actually there aren't thousands of them at all.
Spot on Dave and it stems from Gordon Brown trying to raise money to pay for his incompetence.
...and a policy continued by the inept Theresa May for the same reason.
Perhaps if HMRC looked at the artificial business practices of Amazon et al who manage to create profits in low tax countries then they wouldn't need to waste time and resources chasing the little folk.
One could argue that the likes of Amazon et al can have low prices cos they pay less tax which helps towards the demise of the high street.
Just watch out that your Ikea wardrobe doesn't lean too far to the right.
Do we (or even HMRC) need to start now trying to determine what employment status a robot (AI driven machine) will have?
The immediate angle is definitely a servant... but what if the robot is a boss... now there's a thought.
I'm sure the EU would come up with rules for a Roboss as they did when they created a "worker".
We have been here before, ...many times, one day we may have a solution set in stone, until then heres to the next Employed or self employed article, (I estimate some time next month).
We have been here before, ...many times, one day we may have a solution set in stone, until then heres to the next Employed or self employed article, (I estimate some time next month).