Comments on: Dwindling self-employment: is it killing our economy?

By: Andrea Allsopp

Andrea Allsopp — Wed, 15 May 2024 14:41:25 +0000

Great summation. One of the issue IR35 presented, was the one size fits all approach. If you are a company in a large town or city there are a pool of contractors you can call on. If you are in a remote area the pool is much, much smaller (if it exists). Before IR35 a contractor could claim the expense of travelling and accommodation before tax, now they can’t. The go anywhere, anytime service has been greatly reduced and remote working is not always an option.

By: DI

DI — Wed, 15 May 2024 09:45:20 +0000

This country isn’t treating self-employed folks fairly. I’m paying a whopping 45% in taxes, lost my personal allowance, and don’t qualify for free childcare or child benefits. Plus, my company doesn’t offer any extra perks. It feels like all my hard-earned money is just disappearing into thin air, without anything coming back to me. Despite working hard for years to give my family a better life, I still feel like we’re struggling. If I had all the tax money back, I could afford to send my kids to private school and get them private healthcare.

Many of my peers have already made the decision to move to another country, and I’m following suit.

By: TM

TM — Wed, 15 May 2024 07:14:31 +0000

Great article. The politicians who have introduced these disastrous changes to IR35 simply do not understand how freelancing works. I hope the new government is incentivised to addresses these issues as soon as possible. In the meantime the freelancer pool will continue to shrink.