{"id":17621,"date":"2012-10-05T08:07:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T07:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=17621"},"modified":"2012-10-05T08:07:44","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T07:07:44","slug":"why-does-the-government-tolerate-tax-avoiders-in-its-ranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/10\/05\/why-does-the-government-tolerate-tax-avoiders-in-its-ranks\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does the government tolerate tax avoiders in its ranks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parliament's Public Affairs\u00a0Committee\u00a0(easily the most effective committee ion the House of Commons right now) has a new report out this morning on\u00a0Off-payroll arrangements in the public sector<\/a>. It looks at the 2,400 or so people on such arrangements in central\u00a0government. It looks at the 25,000 or so on such\u00a0arrangements\u00a0at the BBC and it suggests that throughout the NHS and local government and other agencies there will be thousands more.<\/p>\n

They do a great job in making clear that these\u00a0arrangements\u00a0- many, but not all - of which will be straightforward tax abuse are wholly unacceptable.<\/p>\n

And they\u00a0point\u00a0out that when\u00a0H M Revenue & Customs only has the resources to check 23 such cases in 2010-11 then there is\u00a0absolutely\u00a0no effective deterrent to\u00a0such\u00a0arrangements, which are of course even more common in the private sector - where they are just as abusive. The rules are the same for all - lest we forget.<\/p>\n

No one is saying,\u00a0unfortunately, that the answer to this is to radically\u00a0transform\u00a0the way all small business is taxed so that tax abuse is not part of the small\u00a0business\u00a0culture. That's the elephant people won't look at. I have<\/a>. It's time my suggestions were looked at seriously by the Treasury again - they were in 2008.<\/p>\n

But let's also be clear what this means: it means that the culture of tax cheating that is destroying the enterprise culture of the UK's private sector is permeating the public sector. It's a\u00a0cancer\u00a0that is undermining trust, a level playing\u00a0field\u00a0and confidence that we are all in this together. Clearly we're not when these\u00a0arrangements\u00a0are largely\u00a0reserved\u00a0for the more highly paid.<\/p>\n

There are, of course, some people who work for the BBC who are self employed - the lighting camera man who filmed me recently who supplied all his own\u00a0equipment, for example. But there are many who are not, who do the same job day in and day out. Yes, they may have other earnings as well. So what? Those other earnings are freelance. Their work for the BBC is not.<\/p>\n

This cancer has to be cut out.<\/p>\n

But it will only happen if we do three things.<\/p>\n

The first is we have to say paying tax is the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

The second is to give HMRC the resources to stop this abuse<\/a> - and right now the\u00a0government\u00a0is sacking the people who do it.<\/p>\n

Third we have to ensure the small companies owned by freelancers pay - and right now we don't do that either<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No wonder we have a massive tax gap in this country.<\/p>\n

That's a choice by\u00a0government\u00a0- the\u00a0wrong\u00a0choice - and it is they who have to be\u00a0blamed\u00a0most of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parliament’s Public Affairs\u00a0Committee\u00a0(easily the most effective committee ion the House of Commons right now) has a new report out this morning on\u00a0Off-payroll arrangements in the
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