I have researched company data in the UK twice before, once in 2011 and again in 2014. I am doing it again. There is always a broader motive, linked to the tax gap, but the data does, in itself pose questions. Start with the most basic one, which is, why do we need so many companies? This is the data, based on my long-term collection of Companies House information:
We've almost tripled the number of UK companies since 1998. Tax partly explains that. There is tax avoidance and tax evasion written all over this.
So is job insecurity writ large here: this is the world of consulting and faux self-employment on display.
But is that all? It's a question I will be looking at, and because I will generate more data than I can possibly use in any report I will be sharing some of it here.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Why does the UK have so many companies? Presumably because more companies are being created each year than they are destroyed. Incorporation is quick and cheap, and liquidation less so.
How many companies do say Germany or France or the US have per capita?
It is interesting that the annual increases are roughly consistent in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – the number of new incorporations each year is about 17/16/15 percent of the existing register, and number of liquidations is about 10-12 percent. (If anything, the number of liquidations in Northern Ireland is below the trend at about 7% – is there a reason why the rate of increase is a few percentage points higher in Northern Ireland than elsewhere? Is there more tax avoidance, tax evasion, consulting and faux self-employment there than in England and Scotland?)
All questions I am looking at
Looks like Capita might be aiming to reduce the total by one. 🙂
Where are they going to find £700 Million ? Better off taking it to the on-course bookies. At least that way you get a day at the races for your money.
It is a fully underwritten deeply discounted rights issue. That means Capita is offering shares to existing shareholders at a substantial discount – most of whom are therefore likely to take up the opportunity, or at least to sell the subscription rights to someone who will buy the shares at that discounted price – but even if they don’t, there are third parties (the underwriters) who have agreed to take the shares. So Capita are certain to get the money they want.
Andrew says:
“It is a fully underwritten deeply discounted rights issue. That means Capita is offering shares to existing shareholders at a substantial discount —”
One. Two, Three. Hmmmm…
a leg at each corner they’ll be in with a good chance, guess.
You will find that very many shysters and fraudsters and fiddle di dee men are well aware of all the advantages of the present system. We came across one a while back who had a dozen companies to fleece old age pensioners out of the little they had and perfectly legally.
What actual evidence do you have of widescale tax fraud being facilitated by the current system of limited liability companies?
I’ve noticed you are asked this time and again on this blog and yet you never produce any actual evidence.
Accusations, innuendo, scare stories, vague references to bad things happening. Plenty of that.
But hard evidence? None at all. Ever.
How long do you think you can keep up this MaCarthy-esk scare mongering without evidence.
It’s noticible that labour and the unions have stopped using your figures. Maybe they asked for evidence too?
The whole of the drive for automatic information exchange and beneficial ownership data is based on this premise
And the reason why is because around the world regulators see it happening, time and again
And as for Labour and the unions, the answer is the fallout from Corbyn
Last night’s Panorama programme, entitled “Gangsters’ Dirty Money”, about Ukrainian Mafiosi seems relevant here.
Still to watch….
Well, may I just mention the IT contracting sector of which I was a member in the past and in order to operate you **must** be incorporated as a limited company. Agencies won’t touch you if you try the self-employed or sole trader status. When I moved over to permanent employment in the Civil Service a majority of those on site were independent contractors working through limited companies. The department I was in was desperate to get rid of permanent employees and recruit so-called ‘temp’ employees who were there for in excess of 10 years all on daily rates around 200-300 and beyond.
So from what I can find there are around 120,000 in the IT sector alone driven by the but other figures suggest there are 5 million of these personal service companies of which 4 million have no employees.
Just my observations and it is not going to go away any time soon as employers like the setup.
Tax
And employment law
Yes, tax and employment law. This is what IR35 is meant to address but it operates like an arms race. Each side wriggles a bit and so the next iteration of rules is imposed by the HMRC is imposed then the contractor sector and their accountants adjust the contract wording to make sure they are outside the ‘caught by IR35 rules’…and so it goes on.
As I have experienced, employers (including the government) would rather have arms-length relationships with their workforce and avoid any commitment social or otherwise. And loyalty counts for nought. It is all part of the new paradigm, very different from when I started work in 1969.
I so agree with that
Maybe because people create companies to wrap different small entities in, like Progressive Pulse for example 🙂
One wonders if they may be ring fencing liability, as the original purpose bourne from the coffee houses of the 19th century?