How much would you gamble?

[webberg]

Some of you know that my day job is a tax adviser.

I've practised that in many flavours since 1976. Since 2015 I've been focussed on the contractors and contracting sector. The individuals who claim to be contractors have been preyed upon by a small group of snake oil salesmen and women who in my opinion have perpetrated a fraud upon their victims.

In that time the Gov't bodies who had an opportunity to step in and call a halt (HMRC (tax agency, DWP (work and pensions), FCA (financial conduct) have all failed to do so.

Professional bodies, including my own, have failed to take action against their own members who were either actively or supinely involved.

MPs have largely ignored the issue.

The end result is that many of my clients now face life changing demands for money at a time when many were looking to retire.

Arguably, these clients could have done some due diligence at the time and before they essentially gambled their entire annual income - sometimes year after year - on false promises.

So in an area as complex as tax, how much due diligence at a personal level is required and how much should you be entitled to rely upon the "authorities" to protect you?

[Iain]

As a fellow tax professional (although someone who has done company tax most of their life and currently works for a government owned company), I share your sentiment. I had the embarrassment at one major employer of refusing the form of a contract as I did not agree with the tax analysis and insisted on a less "tax favoured" arrangement despite the immediate hit to my pocket. Arguably we are parasites as an appropriate tax system should be simple enough not to require us as opposed to the complexity that has built up particularly over the last 20 years.

Your perspective is different from mine as I see people often pocketing far more than they would normally get for doing the jobs they do partially funded by the tax. I'm sure that there is the full spectrum from people who were unfairly exploited and taken on at low rates to those that have been living beyond their means. No one wants to pay taxes, but people are very happy to take the benefits (cash and in kind) that are paid for by the taxes of others. I do think that taxing employment has perhaps gone too far, but I also see situations that the Governments tool confirms are not taxable as employment that is not the self employment that the more generous non-employment tax rules were intended to encourage. Yes these people do provide a more flexible labour force, but so do a far larger portion of people now required to pay tax as or like employees. In contrast I have to police the distinction for my employer as well as quantifying the employment taxes imposed outside of salaries. Yes it provides me with a living, but attempting to implement an inefficient and unfair tax system provides limited job satisfaction.