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Self-employed people in Britain have followed Chancellor Philip Hammond’s lead by assuring him they have made a ‘broad commitment’ to accurately declare their income.
Facing accusations that increasing National Insurance for the self-employed had breached a Conservative Party manifesto pledge, Hammond said that it had merely been “a broad commitment to lock taxes”.
He cited a change in circumstances with Brexit as the reasoning behind the diversion in policy, which is a strategy that many self-employed people intend to adopt themselves.
“I have made a broad commitment to HMRC that I will declare all of my income,” said Simon Williams, a freelance yoga instructor from Hull.
“But circumstances have changed following the NIC announcement in the Spring Budget, so I might be forced to adopt a slightly different approach when filing my taxes to offset the impact of this.
“Being prudent like this will make me more resilient in the coming years as I try to get my finances match-fit for leaving the EU.
“The Tories have really inspired me actually – I had no idea you can adhere to things so loosely with no meaningful consequences, but they’ve shown that it really works.”
A lack of intent from the government to pursue large-scale corporate tax avoidance has merely added fuel to the anger over the apparent attack on self-employed, but big businesses have sought to defend themselves.
A statement from Starbucks said, “It’s lazy and unfair to blame us for the government’s bad policy.
“We have been paving the way for young entrepreneurs, showing that with a bit of creative flare you simply don’t have to pay the government if you don’t want to.
“They should be thanking us!”
