Yes to Primarolo public flogging!
I find it particularly galling in the current political climate that we contractors were painted as amoral, tax evaders by Dawn Primadonna in her speeches in parliament about IR35, whilst waving about Tim Warr's article encouraging us to "Make hay whilst the sun shines." This was for simply and strictly abiding by tax regulation as it stood at the time.
She also claimed that IR35 would generate three-quarters of a billion pounds a year in additional tax contributions. I'm sure that the small number of successful IR35 investigations and the paltry £9.5Million raised in 02/03 doesn't tell the whole story - I chose to go permie and at least get some benefits for the extra tax I would pay - but I doubt the £.75Billion was anything but made up nonsense. Shouldn't there be some political price to pay for getting it so wrong?
There doesn't even seem to be much of a political price to pay for being an actual amoral fraud, genuinely abusing the tax-payer, if you're an MP. Unless you're the nominated scapegoat that is.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
