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Web comments Call for the creation of regional polytechnics to plug technology skills gap (2 July) I agree with the sentiments expressed, and support the view that a more cohesive STEM strategy will benefit employees, employers et al. However some, like Newcastle College, have taken enormous strides in this area collaborating with a range of partners; in effect filling the role of polytechnics. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Falling numbers of skilled migrants ‘raises alarm bells’ with leading recruiter (3 July) Maybe they should stop skimping on opportunities for persons already living in the UK — including migrants of earlier immigration. They hire a person from another country, bring them over for cheap labour and after some time (usually five years) the person is made redundant and they hire a migrant from another country. Instead they should look at the talent pool here. There are thousands of people who have the qualifications and experience for a range of jobs but who are placed at the bottom of the pile as hiring eats away too much at profit as well as closes the market to the country the business is currently based in. Allow UK citizens to migrate or be offered opportunities in other countries as often as the UK does for other countries. My father has been a civil engineer since the age of 16. He is 54 and unemployed for the past three years. His last employment consisted of training foreign immigrants in his job role — they let him go once they were trained sufficiently. The ‘huge’ difference in pay was a mere 80p cheaper for the immigrants.
Adrastia Masako
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RECRUITER
JULY 2014
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Rob Storey, Newcastle College
CAN’T RUN FROM TAX — AND THERE’S NO PLACE TO HIDE RULES ON DISGUISED EMPLOYMENT AREN’T LIKELY TO DISAPPEAR SOON. NICOLA SULLIVAN HIGHLIGHTS THE CURRENT SITUATION Despite being the subject of hearty debate and a damning select committee report legislation designed to prevent contractors paying significantly less tax than they would if they were directly employed will remain in place largely unchanged. The government will not act on many of the recommendations made in the House of Lords Select Committee report, which looked at the tax implications of Personal Service Companies (PSCs) and the continued feasibility of IR35 legislation introduced in 2000 to ensure contractors don’t pay less tax than if they were directly employed or disguise employment income by using an intermediary, such as a recruitment firm. One of the report’s key recommendations was that
HMRC published a ‘detailed assessment’ of its calculation that IR35 protected tax revenue of £550m — the central justification for keeping the ruling. This figure was heavily criticised during a debate in the House of Lords for being based on assumptions. Those caught by IR35 only save the Treasury a direct cost of £30m, while the remaining £520m is protected from the so-called ‘behavioural’ impact of the legislation. IR35 — here to stay In its response to the final report, the government maintained that its calculations were robust. So IR35 is here to stay, which is a disappointment for organisations such as independent contractor and freelancer association PCG (Professional Contractors Group), which believes it places unnecessary burdens on
recruiters and contractors. This issue was also flagged up by the select committee report, which said that compliance with the rules ‘demand a great deal of time and effort on the part of the contractor’, who sometimes struggle to define their tax position accurately because of the contract-bycontract nature of IR35 and the need for a sound understanding of case law. In fact, the existence of IR35 could discourage people from wanting to freelance in industries such as IT and engineering, where PSCs and employment agencies are commonplace, according to George Anastasi, policy development manager at PCG. Anastasi tells Recruiter: “It is certainly plausible that the burden of dealing with IR35 is going to put people off or make them think it is more
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10/07/2014 14:34