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80% of UK Government IT Projects Suffer Delays Due To Tax Clampdown (theregister.co.uk)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The vast majority of UK government IT projects are suffering delays due to freelancers quitting over the IR35 tax clampdown, according to a survey of contractors. Of 405 IT freelancers surveyed by Contractor Calculator, 79 per cent said the projects they have been working on were delayed as a result of contractors leaving. In April, the government shifted responsibility for compliance with the IR35 legislation from the individual contractor to the public body or recruitment agency. The Treasury says it hopes to raise $240m for 2017/18 by bringing public sector contractors within the scope of the legislation. However, the overall number of freelancers leaving as a result of the changes is lower than previously thought, with 48 per cent jumping ship. In previous surveys more than 80 per cent had threatened to walk once the changes came into force. Half of the contractors who decided to stay managed to find a way of working outside the IR35 changes, with a further 13 per cent working within the scope of IR35 but negotiating a rate increase. The rest seemingly took the changes on the chin.
Little known fact - this whole thing was started as a way to force locum doctors back into NHS employment (at significantly reduced wages and significantly worse working conditions), and subsequently HMRC applied it everywhere because "why not".
Its another aspect of the Conservative war on doctors which has had unintended consequences everywhere else.
It doesn't matter the economic results. What matters is that it grows the government and keeps all those bureaucratic assholes employed. Government, by nature, is parasitic via its monopoly over the populous. It's up to the voters to call them out on their bullshit. Sadly, people don't really give a shit so they Gov gets away with these shenanigans.
The main problem is the population see a business that makes money, and wants the government to take as much money from them as possible to give to them. So instead of talking to the businesses trying to figure out what is acceptable to them, like how much is too much, and how law does the tax need to be for them to grow, they just raise taxes and figure just by raising taxes it means more tax is gathered.
Got people in government who don't know anything about macro economics who simply raising taxes as A + B = C. If taxes are too high, people will do something else. When taxes are to high, the government is telling the people that they don't want them running businesses.