Anderson Recruitment - cue usual hyperbole and rent a quote

[webberg]

The press and BBC are full of a story today about how Anderson Recruitment are encouraging the use of an "abusive" tax avoidance scheme that HMRC says "doesn't work" and which the usual rent a quote crowd are using as a stick to beat their favourite targets.

I don't know much about the alleged avoidance scheme and certainly have never to my knowledge brushed against the recruiter but this furore is a good example of the hysteria and to be blunt, utter crap, that flows from people who should know better, just to get a few column inches.

However it is a serious consideration for us here. It demonstrates that there is still considerable appetite with media outlets to feed public opinion on this issue, usually with negative stories.

The facts are that the "scheme" looks to save around £300k. If applied universally, it is estimated (guessed) that £20m is involved. The last figure I could find in a 30 second search for NIC collected was 2012/13 at £84 BILLION.

So perhaps 0.023% of the fund collections. Or 50 x this scheme to reach 1% of the NIC collected 3 years ago.

Logically this is a non story.

Emotionally it is massive. This hurdle is one that BIG GROUP will be taking head on and a critical element of that strategy is to bring the facts to a disbelieving public and restore some balance.

[squirrel]

Agree entirely

I've always maintained this isn't a popularity contest but we've got an uphill battle persuading (and I think we'll need to to some extent) the average tax evader (give us a discount for cash) that tax avoidance is legal.

Didn't the BBC use some kind of EBT to pay its employees / reporters? And Margaret Hodge complaining again, I'm sure her family has some shares somewhere they shouldn't have been?!?

This is where I was going with the Ecclestone story last week, plenty of these are being reported, we need to keep track of them, their judgments could help in some way...

[webberg]

It's been mentioned to me that my original piece might be seen as defending tax avoidance and avoiders.

I'm not.

I was trying to point out the sort of attitudes and assumptions that people have about anything connected to tax at the moment and how hard a task it will be to overcome them.

My main gripe is how ill informed opinion makers can be but nonetheless get a platform where their words are treated as pearls of wisdom.

[neil99]

Didn't the BBC use some kind of EBT to pay its employees / reporters? And Margaret Hodge complaining again, I'm sure her family has some shares somewhere they shouldn't have been?!?

I recommend reading Private Eye. It reports frequently on tax dodgers.

Ms Hodge is a hypocrite. See below ...

Margaret Hodge's family company pays just 0.01pc tax on £2.1bn of business generated in the UK - Telegraph

[Tass1968]

It seems HMRC are targeting every UK citizen now.......

HMRC targets Etsy, eBay and Gumtree sellers – but when is your hobby taxable? - Telegraph

Given that HMRC have been given a fairly easy ride by the media over the last few years (and that this in turn has enabled them to extend powers without the restraint of public opprobrium), maybe now they are overplaying their hand. I can't imagine the Mail and the Sun not getting a few stories relating to HMRC overcharging and harassing grannies and nurses and hard-working families out of this one.

[squirrel]

Have I missed something?

It seems HMRC are targeting every UK citizen now.......

HMRC targets Etsy, eBay and Gumtree sellers – but when is your hobby taxable? - Telegraph

Given that HMRC have been given a fairly easy ride by the media over the last few years (and that this in turn has enabled them to extend powers without the restraint of public opprobrium), maybe now they are overplaying their hand. I can't imagine the Mail and the Sun not getting a few stories relating to HMRC overcharging and harassing grannies and nurses and hard-working families out of this one.

I thought APNs were only going to be issued to DOTAS registered schemes? When did it change so they could issue APNs to anyone?

[eek]

It seems HMRC are targeting every UK citizen now.......

HMRC targets Etsy, eBay and Gumtree sellers – but when is your hobby taxable? - Telegraph

Given that HMRC have been given a fairly easy ride by the media over the last few years (and that this in turn has enabled them to extend powers without the restraint of public opprobrium), maybe now they are overplaying their hand. I can't imagine the Mail and the Sun not getting a few stories relating to HMRC overcharging and harassing grannies and nurses and hard-working families out of this one.

I think you are being optimistic there. Nothing in that article is going to go down badly with the general public...

[eek]

The press and BBC are full of a story today about how Anderson Recruitment are encouraging the use of an "abusive" tax avoidance scheme that HMRC says "doesn't work" and which the usual rent a quote crowd are using as a stick to beat their favourite targets.

I don't know much about the alleged avoidance scheme and certainly have never to my knowledge brushed against the recruiter but this furore is a good example of the hysteria and to be blunt, utter crap, that flows from people who should know better, just to get a few column inches.

However it is a serious consideration for us here. It demonstrates that there is still considerable appetite with media outlets to feed public opinion on this issue, usually with negative stories.

The facts are that the "scheme" looks to save around £300k. If applied universally, it is estimated (guessed) that £20m is involved. The last figure I could find in a 30 second search for NIC collected was 2012/13 at £84 BILLION.

So perhaps 0.023% of the fund collections. Or 50 x this scheme to reach 1% of the NIC collected 3 years ago.

Logically this is a non story.

Emotionally it is massive. This hurdle is one that BIG GROUP will be taking head on and a critical element of that strategy is to bring the facts to a disbelieving public and restore some balance.

Actually the complaint against Anderson is valid. Artificially separating an existing company into 150 separate companies just to reduce Employers NI is clearly aggressive tax avoidance.

There are plenty of things to campaign against and attack (the chase every penny approach in the telegraph article above is a prime example of something to attack) but supporting the creation of insane business structures where management is separate to the company employing the worker isn't one of them....

[neil99]

It seems HMRC are targeting every UK citizen now.......

HMRC targets Etsy, eBay and Gumtree sellers – but when is your hobby taxable? - Telegraph
.

HMRC should be going after builders and the like who work for cash and pay their 'employees' in cash. I can think of a few operatives I've dealt with who probably avoid at least 100k a year in NIC, VAT, PAYE and corporation tax.

They talk about being fair to taxpayers yet the black market economy is thriving especially in construction.