More than half, or 63%, of freelancers and contractors surveyed by Qdos Contractor, have urged the Government to prioritise building a fairer tax system, and one that works for contractors, not against them.

The research follows the results of the general election which resulted in a hung parliament and ultimately remained a Conservative-led government. Further research from Qdos showed that 15.5% would like to see the appointment of a Minister for freelancers and contractors, 10% believe Government should focus on making mortgages more accessible for the self-employed, 7% called for Government to incentivise pensions for the self-employed and 4.5% would like to see ‘other’ plans carried out first, including ‘cutting red tape’, and the ‘digitalisation of Government, to make company reporting simpler’.

“Clearly, freelancers and contractors would prefer to see this version of a Conservative Government focus on the issues surrounding IR35 and the tax system over anything else. And you simply cannot blame them,” Qdos stated.

Dave Chaplin, CEO and founder of ContractorCalculator, commented on the research, “Contractors should be very careful what they wish for. At the moment there is no legal definition of ‘contractor’ or ‘personal service company’. Any attempt to categorise contractors in law to make tax fairer could backfire as the Government could see the contracting arena as rich pickings for further taxes.”

“HMRC publicly say that, contrary to actual tax law, they think two people doing the same kind of work should pay the same level of tax,” Chaplin said. “Any “fairer tax system” could result in the tax breaks contractors currently receive being taken away. They’ve already been eroded via the dividend tax changes, which are likely to be reduced further in the Autumn Statement.  I would say it’s a case of ‘better the devil you know’.”