Woodbank Office Solutions
Tim Gibbons & Wendy Brown – Federal-Mogul Friction Products Limited
Colin Foster – Universal Solutions 4 Business
Karen & Jaime – Primera Travel
The Self-Employed
Article in The Times newspaper
Mike Madden, of Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire, is pleased that the chancellor is investing more than £1 billion in broadband and mobile technology. Mr Madden, 55, a self-employed IT consultant who is married with two teenage sons and a grown-up daughter, says: “I do quite a lot of business with the US and they are much morea dvanced in this.”
As someone who drives more than 20,000 miles a year for his work, the freezing of fuel duty will save him more than the £130 that a driver on average annual mileage will gain. He also welcomes the 21.1 billion to be spent on transport networks.
“The increase in the annual personal tax allowance will help me, although I will not benefit from any rise in the higher-rate threshold because I pay myself only £12,000 a year and take most of my income in dividends,” he says.
From April the government will crack down on disguised employment, where someone, such as an IT contractor, effectively works full-time for an employer, but is regarded as self-employed for tax purposes. This means that HMRC. can lose out on tax and national insurance contributions, which are usually lower for the self-employed.
Mr Madden says: “There had been talk of extending that to the private sector; I am pleased that the government has not done that. My wife and I are employed in my company and we ‘really’ are
self-employed. but if we get too much hassle from the government. we could just pack the company.”.
Mark Atherton
Photos from the High Peak Business Club
Members in lively discussion at High Peak Business Club
