IR35 ‘should be scrapped!’ GB News guest in furious rant over rules | Personal Finance | Finance
On Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel this morning, Helen Hampton discussed her views on IR35 and how it has negatively affected her choir business. As a self-employed person Eamonn Holmes could empathise and said that when he looks at Government “they pretend”. “They don’t want you to be self-employed, they make it so difficult,” he said.
Ms Hampton responded: “IR35 should be scrapped, it’s complete nonsense.
“As a singer it makes our lives impossible, you can’t be self employed as a musician.
“I understand that this term gig economy that has been thrown up because there are now several people doing different jobs and we should be looking at why they’re doing that perhaps but it doesn’t take away from the genuine people who are in trades and professions that need to be self-employed.
“IR35 is a complete disaster, it makes everything impossible.
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“We have to be able to offer our services and just get paid. The tax system for being self-employed is bad enough as it is, having to pay up front and then claw it back.
“This is what used to happen to me when I was younger, you were trying to get on the ladder, you didn’t work very much so you were hand to mouth, very poor and racking up debt.
“Then maybe you get a tour or a summer season or you get some work that actually pays you some money, and your head is just above water but then because of tax, it’s all gone.
“I feel sympathy for those in the television industry as I know you’ve been clobbered by this and I think it’s grossly unfair.”
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“What the hell is VAT! Value Added Tax for what? It makes no sense.
“Like coming to my choir, why do you have to pay VAT for that? It cripples my business.
“If I had the Government in front of me I would say, ‘What are you doing?’
“We are crying out for you to lower taxes, make our lives easier and give people more of their money so they can actually spend it on things that will keep other businesses going which will bring the taxes.
“If businesses can’t survive because they don’t have excess money then everyone is poorer.”
Some of the sectors where self-employed numbers dropped the most were in “artistic, literary and media occupations,” Derek Cribb of Ipse told The Telegraph.
Figures in these sectors fell 14 percent to 259,000 while construction and building trades numbers dropped 10 percent to 366,000, according to figures by trade body Ispe.
The Government defended its support for freelancers, saying it paid out £30billion in self-employed income support scheme grants.
