Re: We need more tax...
Not sure why you are explaining to me? It was a bit of a rhetorical question for the OP and permies... i.e. non-contractors claim contractors pay less tax, but have no idea how or why that might be - a contractor could just pay themselves straight salary if they wanted and tax would be exactly the same! But OMG, they could claim travel expenses etc. etc.
Key point is, in my line of work at least, IR35 is pretty much a bureaucratic exercise where lots of clients just don't want to do the paperwork. That's fine by me, but they are going to have to pay extra for that laziness. And if they won't do that, going perm is a last resort. Kills flexible resourcing and probably raises less tax overall, but what can you do... It's clear no political party is going to scrap or fundamentally change IR35. The only winner is consultancy firms (hence my other observation regarding control and direction...)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
