George Osborne Articles

Much of the business news to come out since Britain took its decision to leave the EU has had a gloomy edge to it. The results of a YouGov poll released on Thursday showed that the number of businesses pessimistic about the future had almost doubled from 25% before the referendum to 49% afterwards.

Also earlier this week, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) urged political leaders to step up, after their small business confidence index slipped to a four-year low. 

The Chancellor George Osborne has announced significant changes that might affect people working in off-payroll public sector jobs.

The announcement will change the way that IR35 legislation is applied - meaning that public sector organisations and authorities including Whitehall departments, schools, the NHS, police and public sector broadcasters like the BBC and Channel 4 - will be responsible for interpreting and enforcing the rules from April 2017.

There will be no change for off-payroll workers in the private sector, although this could change in the future. 

The government has come under increasing scrutiny this week after a tax agreement reached with Google was labelled a “major success” by George Osborne, but dismissed as a raw deal by almost everybody else.

The £130 million deal, which covered ten years of trading, was branded a “sweetheart deal” by the Labour finance minister, while on David Cameron’s government benches the business minister Anna Soubry admitted that it did not appear to be an “awful lot of money.” 

George Osborne has warned that the health of the UK economy is at risk from shaky global conditions, saying 2016 has opened with a “dangerous cocktail of new threats”.
Speaking in Wales, the Chancellor cautioned that, far from being ‘mission accomplished,’ 2016 will be ‘mission critical’ for Britain.

The Chancellor. George Osborne, will deliver his Autumn Statement on 25th November 2015 and rumours have just been leaked that he is considering sweeping changes that will adversely affect UK contractors.

The Autumn Statement is in effect a mini budget.

Contractor One Month Rule

Over the weekend there were various reported leaks that The Chancellor is considering a new rule that would mean contractors who take a contract longer than one month would have to be paid PAYE by their end client after just one month. It is unclear if it would be from day 1 if it was known at the start that the contract would be for more than one month.

New government plans for ‘digital tax accounts', that could see contractors forced to update their tax information every quarter, have been snubbed by a bureaucracy watchdog that works with HMRC.

In a report published earlier this month, the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board (ABAB) predicted that plans announced by George Osborne – including mandatory quarterly tax updates – would create too large a burden on small businesses. 

Two organisations representing the interests of small business owners and self-employed workers have urged the Chancellor to deliver a budget that backs enterprise on Wednesday.

George Osborne, they argue, has to recognise the impact that small businesses have on the economy in terms of driving growth and creating jobs.

At a time when tax and pension changes are making things difficult for business owners, it is crucial that the Budget statement sends a strong signal to small businesses.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) used its pre-budget statement to urge the Chancellor to reform business rates and simplify the tax system. 

marketing | 20 January 2016
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A controversial proposal that could see small business owners forced to update their tax bill four times a year will be debated in parliament next week, after an online petition was signed by more than 100,000 people.

The parliamentary petitions committee, which handles online petitions, has scheduled a debate on ‘quarterly tax returns’ for the afternoon of the 25th of January.

Small business owners reacted angrily when the proposal was first announced by Chancellor George Osborne at his Autumn Statement. To vent frustration, business owner Paul Johnson started an online petition that has since been signed by over 107,000 people. 

In November 2015, prior to the release of George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, we wrote to the Chancellor raising our concerns in respect of proposed legislation changes to IR35, travel & subsistence tax relief for contractors and the one month rule that was incorrectly rumoured to being introduced for contractors working through their own limited company.

Today, 9th December 2015, we have received a reply and are thankful for the time taken in doing so.

Coincidently today is the day when the first draft of the new Finance Bill will be released. This Bill will contain the new legislation.

In a speech designed to show how well the economy was recovering and how it was prosperity all around it may have been hard to notice that George Osborne had one eye on the huge number of contractors and freelancers that support the economy and its recovery.