Making a difference
Some previous articles on UKTECH have examined whether it was worth campaigning against a Government with such large majority and a media which seemed unwilling to listen to anything longer than a soundbite. Nevertheless, there was (and still is) a school of thought among some contractors who thought that we might not win - but it won't be for the want of trying.
There have been many occasions where Ministers, including the Prime Minister, have been 'hit' with IR35 when they least expected it - there was a recent example of IR35 being the only non-fox hunting subject raised on a 'QuestionTime' programme devoted exclusively to fox-hunting. Last Sunday (July 2, 2000) was another example of that, when Secretary of State for the DTI, Stephen Byers, was interviewed by John Humphrys during BBC's political programme 'On the Record'.
Byers was the main guest on the current affairs programme to discuss the implications of the single currency (or not) on the business community. However, sufficient contractors had realised that the man responsible for business in the UK was on a live interview that they emailed John Humphrys to ask him to raise IR35 with the Secretary of State.
Towards the end of the interview, Mr Humphrys said: "I will be shot by many people watching this programme if I don't ask you about IR35, that's an Inland Revenue regulation, strictly speaking the Chancellor's affair, I suppose, but one that means that an awful lot of small business people, people who run their own little businesses, especially in the IT sector, find utterly crippling, it's going to cost them, it is costing them a fortune and they are saying we cannot carry on if this carries on. Are you going to think about rowing back from that?
Mr Byers, presumably unbriefed by his spin doctors for this 'googly', said: "Well, IR35 was introduced to ensure that people couldn't use service companies as a way of escaping their responsibility for tax and national insurance.....
John Humphrys continued to raise the concerns of many contractors, saying: "...and it's had massive ramifications, people writing to me all the time at this programme saying we are going bust, we have actually had to close down."
Byers said: "Well, I'd be surprised that people, because they now have to pay tax and because they now have to pay national insurance in the way in which we all have to, they are being treated fairly like everybody else. If they were using service companies as a device to escape their liabilities, then I think it's right and proper that we...."
Humphrys interrupted and asked if he would look at it again....and Byers concluded:..."well we want a fair tax system, in the context of a fair tax system, we review all of our proposals."
UKTECH note: Whether it made a difference, only time will tell. Certainly when individuals' emails went into the BBC office their authors probably didn't think they could make a difference - but collectively they meant that another Government Secretary of State was forced to answer - and try to defend - IR35. Given this was a measure which, 12 months ago, was considered so low down the agenda that it was only considered worthy of the 35th written post-Budget press notice, it is now riding high on the Government's antennae.
Full transcript of BBC interview
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Susie Hughes