Philip Hammond breaks manifesto pledge with budget tax grab

[T_i_B]

Worth remembering that many of the poorest workers are self employed. The Conservative party is no longer the party of the entrepreneur or those workers who want to get ahead in life. Merely a party of the retired and the super-rich.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/08/philip-hammond-economy-budget-2017-chancellor-growth-brexit

Philip Hammond sparked a political row on Wednesday with a tax grab on self-employed workers that breached a Conservative manifesto pledge not to raise national insurance rates. The Conservatives’ 2015 manifesto promised four times that the party would “not increase the rates of VAT, income tax or national insurance in the next parliament”. One of their key attacks on Labour was that Ed Miliband would raise NICs, in what David Cameron and George Osborne called a “jobs tax”.

The chancellor said he would increase class four national insurance contributions (NICs) by one percentage point to 10% in April 2018, rising again to 11% in 2019.

A Labour spokesman condemned what he called a “sole traders tax” – though the Treasury pointed out that the changes would only hit those whose profits exceeded £8,000, and many of those were due to benefit from a separate change due to take effect in April, which will see class two NICs, also paid by the self-employed, abolished.

Simon McVicker, of the trade body Ipse, which represents freelancers and independent professionals, said: “When you look at the additional support offered for business rates it appears as if the chancellor is supporting SMEs [small and medium-sized businesses] by hitting entrepreneurs and the smallest of businesses.”

[Denzil_DC]

1. I love the broad brush applied to "the self-employed".

The category includes some who've done very well for themselves and can well afford to pay more. It also includes people who've long (often barely) subsisted on the equivalent of a string of those dreaded "zero-hour contracts" (I fall into the latter category). And many of us are looking forward to Brexit with dread, as it may just finish us off.

[T_i_B]

2. The example I immediatly think of...

...is an ex-girlfriend who works as a sign language translator for deaf people. She works with some of the most vulnerable people going, but the pay is not good. The contract was changed a couple of years ago to make them self employed, which reduced tax liabilities but also had the effect of reducing their income still futher.

And now those same people, who are already on very low pay are going to get screwed over even more by the government. It just makes you really angry for those people who are trying to earn an honest living and makes you wonder how on earth anyone is going to want to get into jobs like sign laguage translation, which provide an important service for very little reward.

[Denzil_DC]

3. Absolutely right.

The treatment of the whole sector has been shameful.

The chickens will really come home to roost when we in this class of employment are no longer able to work. The vast proportion of us don't have private pensions, as putting aside enough to amount to a meaningful retirement pot that has any hope of keeping pace with inflation is a laughable prospect when rates of pay have stagnated for many years, and even if we outlive the ever-shifting goalposts of retirement age, the state's provision is hardly likely to be generous.

So, short of an unexpected windfall, folks like me will just have to stagger along until some merciful stroke of fate solves the problem for us and everybody else.

I am getting a kick from some of the tabloids referring to me as a "white van man", though (actually a "Rover 214s man", and moderately proud of it, as she's practically a family pet).

[T_i_B]

4. Whilst those in regular employment tend to face a few of these issues...

...the Self Employed have a lot less security, and are often living something of a hand-to-mouth existence. Life's difficult enough without a bad, spiteful government sticking it's oar in.

[LeftishBrit]

5. More mean-spiritedness and nasty policies

Self-employed people are an easy target: by definition they don't have a trade union or big corporation behind them.

They do, however, have a vote; and I hope they use it to get rid of this bunch!

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. U-turn over Budget plan to increase National Insurance

Plans to increase National Insurance levels for self-employed people - announced in the Budget last week - have been dropped.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has said the government will not proceed with the increases which were criticised for breaking a 2015 manifesto pledge.

In a letter to Tory MPs, he said: "There will be no increases in... rates in this Parliament."

Mr Hammond will explain the U-turn in a Commons statement later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39278968