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Following the logic of Government Ministers, who like to quote the two IT workers sitting side by side, how would you distinguish this tanker driver from one employed by ACME Oil Company? Following on their logic. If you cannot distinguish them then they must be tax cheating, disguised employees who can be forced into employment and told what to do or be fired. You may recall that this was the first move. It has all gone quiet on this however. The latest news is a MOU signed with the Oil companies that is silent on this issue
The reason?
Case law. A case in 1968 involved a driver of a Ready Mix lorry. He was required to wear the company overalls and had to follow the instructions of the client. (Bit of a problem if he was to be dumping cement where he wanted) The courts found that he was self-employed, because most importantly, he had invested in his lorry and was required to maintain it.
Not much difference from a Contractor who has invested many years acquiring the skills that enable him or her to sell their services and who have to spend many hours keeping them updated. The problem is that, unlike the Tanker or cement truck driver, Contractors have not been allowed to work as self employed. As a result no case law has developed.
The Government know this. This is smash and grab raid to extract as much as possible before the courts catch up. The problem for the Government is that they were elected on a mandate not to raise income tax and to fund the never ending demands of the Public service, they have to find a method without breaking that promise. Stealth taxes were the answer and it has been amazing that it has taken this long for the public at large to catch on.
So we have the irony that the “genuine business man” sits in his clients overalls on his clients site drinking tea and sucking his teeth and talking of intimidation. Whilst the rest of us grind to a halt he can rest easy that any downtime is written off against tax and can be treated as a business expense. Meanwhile the disguised employee Contractor cannot get into the clients site as he has run out of petrol. To add fuel (excuse the pun) to the bonfire he does not get paid for the unexpected downtime whilst the undisguised employee who sits next to him at the site, turns over in bed, enjoying the lie-in with a ready-made excuse on why he cannot get into work and safe that his pay cheque will hit his bank account to pay the mortgage.
A sig on the PCG forums hits the spot:
Will the new generation now understand why the last one kept the Labour party out for so long
My problem is that the other options look pretty dire.
Still, when my kids ask me what business to get into, I now can point them to driving a petrol tanker as a shining example of the enterprise culture in action
Cheers
Andy White
mailto:andy@shout99.com
Link to the MOU
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