> If the UK government really wants to follow through with their plans, they need to set up a Great Firewall - just like China - to block their citizens from accessing encrypted services like Tutanota.
We (the UK) already have a great firewall. Try to access thepiratebay.org or other pirate sites, or other sites that the UK gov deems inappropriate (CP obviously), etc. Its just a case of encroaching that same system just a little further, step by step.
People only tend to fight back when large sweeping one-off changes come in. If you consistently and repeatedly wear the other side down, you eventually get your way. How many times did the house of commons vote on brexit? How many times did the US congress vote on Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker? Yeah, as long as you just keep on and on about it, you get your way.
Not an expert but my basic understanding is that the hyperventilating before holding your breath basically oxygenates your blood so that you can hold for longer.
Thats quite a good marketing trick actually. Something that most people can do and probably would do. Getting them to buy in do the small excercise and then going to the sign up. Well done to whoever thought of this.
Gotta remember that just because you put something in a contract doesnt mean its legal. I could put that you must murder anyone i tell you, even if you sign that it doesnt make it legal. But thats criminal law.
I terms of the UK, realistically its still just a curtousy, but employers put it in because employees often thinnk that they have to adhere to it, they don't. If in the scenario the employee doesnt work the notice period and just immediately leaves, the employer technically could take them to civil court, make a case that they need them to finish their notice period, and the court could theoretically grant them that due to the employee's breach of contract. But i'd imagine thats almost never happened (just guessing), because that would take considerable time, effort and money to do that, and its less hassle just to let them go.
So yeah, its put in because employers can, and employees often incorrectly think they're beholden to it and comply anyway.
What pjc50 is correct, but might help to be more specific. If you literally mean its had 0 revenue and 0 expenses, then its basically a dormant company and you can file so.
However, if you've ran the company in previous years, even if you've taken a year off and had 0 incoming revenue, you may have other taxes to pay. There wouldnt be any corporation tax as theres no profit, but you may have some very small expenses like bank fees, maintenance of servers, subscriptions, etc that might be left over. So you wouldnt be dormant, you'd be a loss making company, but still active.
If you had a big chunk of money in the biz bank account and still paid yourself, there would be taxes on that, both on the company and personal side depending on how you paid yourself.
I wouldnt recommend setting up a Ltd company to literally do nothing with it though, 0 revenue and 0 expenses, you're not really benefitting for any reason.
And as long as you're running a proper business with multiple clients, your own equipment, your own hours, etc, then you dont fall foul of IR35. If you are however basically being treated the same as a PAYE employee would, 1 client, their office, their equipment, their hours, their conditions, etc, then you're dodging tax and thats the point of IR35.
To be clear, in the UK, setting up a Ltd company is incredibly simple and easy to maintain.
It costs £12 and takes about 20min to create. Then you get a bank account with startling/monzo which is very simple (easier than high st banks). All tax is done online which again is fairly simple. Sign up for freeagent (or another accounting package) and just keep on top of your accounts. When it comes to filing your annual accounts and confirmation statement, again its all incredibly simple and can be done yourself without the need for an accountant as you'll qualify for mico-entity accounts and freeagent handles it for you. Or you can pay roughly £1200-£1500/yr to an accountant and have them do it for you.
Its honestly not hard at all, happy to answer anyones questions on the matter.
“Should an emergency situation occur, you need to put your own oxygen mask on first, before attempting to help those around you.”
Rule applies here, work on yourself so that you're a better person to be with in a relationship. Work on physical health, good diet, mental wellbeing, work through any past traumas or bad experiences (perhaps with a mental health professional) so you're not carring baggage to future relationships, work on impulse control, emotional control and pretty much the most important one above all others, communication skills.
These things basically apply to all relationships, romantic, professional, friendships, family, etc and are generally good things to work on for your own happiness and wellbeing too.
The one thing you need to keep in mind is that ALL parents screw up their kids in some way or another, its impossible to be a perfect parent as humans are not perfect. You just gotta try to do your best, educate yourself as much as you can and use your own judgement. Don't worry too much, you'll become a better parent the longer you do it as you'll have more experience.
Try to talk to parents of older children and ask for their advice, try to also talk to parents that are outwith your own friends/culture circle too. Even if they've raised their kids in a wildly different way to how you have, their knowledge helps you decide how you want to parent, even if its the opposite of them.
This is not what my actual system is but its the best one i've heard of, its very much a super lazy, throw money at the problem kind of solution.
Have 2 dishwashers. Make sure all the dishes and cutlery you own fits in them. Fill one dishwasher with the dirty dishes, turn it on and onces its done, just leave the clean dishes in there, thats where they live now, thats the storage solution for them. As you use the clean dishes, load them into the other dishwasher until done, repeat the cycle.
This does scream like a solution from a single guy with too much money, but honestly, i'd do it if my kitchen wasn't tiny.
I'd find it strange that you can only become senior after X amount of years. Some people are just more skilled than others. One person can do a job for 20 years and still only be medicore, whereas others could do a job for 1 year and be a master at it.
I would assume the title is based on merit and ability, not X number of years regardless of how good or not they are.
When they say illegal, they probably mean breach of contract, not illegal in terms of criminal law. Also just because something is in a contract, doesnt make it lawful or even actionable.
I said that those operating like a permanent employee but paying themselves through a ltd company are dodging tax, based on the limited information you’ve given, it sounds like you’re running a business, not acting as a disguised employee.
You say you’re a startup, that would assume you’re trying to create and offer a product or service from your company for the market, that’s a business. You say your income is currently from consulting, I would assume that means you’re offering a service to one or more clients, I don’t know the details but if you’re offering that consulting service like a business then you’re not a disguised employee.
If however you are working for a company, using their equipment, in their workplace, on their timetable, taking holidays when they say so, where you cannot substitute yourself with someone else and you don’t have any other clients and it’s essentially a permanent arrangement, then yeah, it’s possible you are falling foul of the IR35 law and you should speak to an expert on the subject.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, those dodging tax by just operating like a permanent employee but through a Ltd company are on the wrong side of the law. The problem i had is it punishes those operating legitimately.
Lots of laws are like this, for instance the piracy warnings that they used to put at the start of DVD's that only punished lawful users cuz if your pirated it, the warnings would be cut out. Theres many more examples like this.
The point of the law is to stop people taking on contracts that should essentially be permanent employee roles. Its more tax efficient to be paid via your own Ltd company instead of as a PAYE employee, especially when you get into the highest tax bracket, and so the government loses tax revenue.
The IR35 law was supposed to stop them losing tax revenue, and to be honest i even agree with the overall law, they just executed it incorrectly. They put the responsiblity on the company offering the contract, when it should be on the person applying for the contract that has the responsibility to show they're a business and not a disguised employee.
The better way to do it in my opinion is to empower HMRC with more resources to question contractors and show that they are actual businesses and not tax dodging employees.
About damn time, luckily i've not been a contractor for some years now and have missed the IR35 shitshow of recent years. Having a client offering a contract having to determine if my company is an actual business or i'm just a disguised employee is a ridiculous way of doing it. Sorry but when i was contracting i was also taking on other freelance work, had long standing retainers for maintance for past clients and having junior developers working in my company doing the grunt work, thats a business, i'm not a disguised employee.
The responsiblity should be on the person to argue with HMRC that they are a business and for those legitimately operating as such, then its not at all difficult.