How can it be possibly argued that this was ever going to be a genuine consultation exercise based on looking after the greater good of the subcontractor when you look at the nitty gritty and find out that the “consultation” proposals basically only deem them to be employees without any employment rights – yes welcome to the “it’s not all it seems” show!

HMRC are trying to rail road all self employed workers in the Construction Industry down the route of being employed by having to pass certain tests – now you would think that these tests would have come from tried and tested case law but no HMRC can’t win these cases so like a petulant child let’s take our ball home and return with the proverbial sledge hammer. The proposals aren’t going to work on so many levels and you can see that they will be attacked from all angles, health & safety, employment law etc etc. Now as I have always maintained HMRC resources would be better spent attacking those well publicised schemes that blatantly advertise that they are circumventing the rules, whether it be by off shore arrangements, taking the proverbial out of the Dispensation system or by the debacle of the £15 per week per subcontractor arrangement (pushed by companies that are CIS registered – so let’s have a collective thought process on that one – not difficult to deal with!) that so obviously don’t work – HMRC visit the contractors using these schemes and look at the reality of what is happening – nothing changes when they move to this arrangement – it should but it doesn’t in practice and challenge these people because these are the ones ripping off the Treasury not John Smith the bricklayer.