I reckon there are far more gig economy and newly or casual self-employed workers, who want to do the right thing and pay their taxes and NI, as there are rich offshorers keen to pay as little as possible. Five minutes looking at a tax return gives me a headache, and I’m supposed to know about these things. So no wonder so many others find them so daunting, and the prospect of finding and paying an accountant so terrifying, that they end up not bothering and hoping for the best. Simplifying rather than complexifying the system at every budget, could hugely increase the tax-take and reduce collective stress levels. Dream on.
“HMRC scraps plans to tax pensions after death”
A couple of other Statement Highlights (in my world, anyway). A welcome ‘nothing happened’ on the treatment of pensions on death. They were never going to be liable to IHT (too complicated with trusts and trust law) but there was talk of making them income-taxable on the recipients at whatever age you die.
