Great British Recovery?

I wonder how much is the drive to keep prices down and how much to keep the shareholders happy. Either way the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer.

I have avoided this conversation so far but would like to point out (as a small business owner) you cannot pay holiday pay based on a 10-12 hour contract if the employee actually works 20,30,40 hours. Holiday pay has to be calculated on actual hours worked (averaged out) the contracted hours have nothing at all to do with it.

silverfish a lot of your claims are wrong I am afraid. As gillybob has said above ( beat me to it!) holiday pay is calculated on an average of actual hours worked. My staff work variable hours and when they take holiday, it is paid, per HMRC rules, based on average of the previous 12 weeks. You are letting your obvious and understandable frustration stand in the way of fact, and I do no believe that a very nice woman known to you receives £90 from the state to fund her furniture and decoration compulsion, or did I read that wrong?

Also meant to add that I think the term "selfish greedy employers" is awful silverfish. You didn't even have the decency to add the word "some" !

We are not all selfish and greedy Silverfish in fact I would say quite the opposite. I hate the them /us attitude that some people have against employers when most of us small business owners are no better (or worse) off than the people they employ.

You do like to take rather polarised standpoints, don't you, silverfish ?

One of my DDs is on a zero hours contract so gets no holiday pay or sick pay, although her hours are fairly regular and she gets a good hourly rate. There is no security, however.
The other DD owns a small business (farm) with SIL and, after costs and seasonal staff wages, superannuation, tax etc, would barely have had enough money to pay their mortgage this year, let alone food, etc. Luckily, they work their socks off and very long hours for some extra income. Yet again not a lot of security.

I agree that if you are self employed its hard too, I tried it last year and lost lots of money but it just seems that employers don't care, maybe the smaller ones do, those who know their staff but the huge employers like I work for and I would love to name the multimillion company I work for, do not care, we are just numbers. Years ago I worked in a factory and there were no zero hours, but some lasses worked part time, evening shift and that was enough to keep up with child care etc. The man would work during the day and the woman(usually) evening shift and they had 20 hours. this was enough to give a reasonable wage for less hours and no-one complained but nowadays I suppose they would work for zero hours. Until you work like this you don't know how hard it can be.

In reply to Gillt57, the woman im referring to is on state benefit and has a compulsive buying habit, it is classed as a mental illness, although she is as down to earth as anyone I know, she just spends every day, she got into debt and a social organisation stepped in to help her avoid bankruptcy and they help her to budget, she accepts this and does try not to spend as much. She just happened to mention that she gets £90 a month ontop of her state benefit to fund her spending habit and she does try to stick to this. Im not telling lies, shes a lovely girl but I must admit I would love £90 to spend each month.

Also in reply to the above about holiday pay, a certain huge employer in the retail industry who refer to their staff as colleagues, pay holiday pay according to contracted hours. I was told this by a checkout operator only the other day, she said how unfair it was to work so many hours but not get full holiday pay.

Here's an interesting link, if I am allowed, for those of you who are employers. Don't pay your corporation tax, and you will not be chased up!
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/05/21/is-corporation-tax-now-an-honesty-box-tax-paid-only-by-the-willing-and-unenforced-on-the-rest/

Very interesting durhamjen but in my experience not true! Perhaps it is because I am above board, have registered for RTI ( Real Time Information) reporting for my payroll, pay my VAT and submit all the necessary returns through my accountant. I dont have a problem at all with paying what is due, just think that if more companies, especially huge international ones, also paid what is due, it would be more fair. And Silverfish glad you have stopped bashing employers, we are not all bad you know, but still think you have been misled about someone being given £90 spending money, maybe this is what is left after all her bills are paid?

I totally agree GillT57 if only......

We were hounded to death for our corporation tax which was chicken feed compared with what the big boys are getting away with. It is truly unfair. Like you we pay everything above board. We only work business to business therefore no cash changes hands. RTI reporting for payroll, VAT etc. I think I (and many others like me) should be paid a wage as a tax collector !

What you are describing is illegal Silverfish Holiday pay is accumulated on an average of hours worked, not hours contracted.

silverfish I sympathise with you hope your work situation improves soon and I admire you for wanting to work and not relying on benefits.

JessM If the Polish workers are not happy with their working conditions they can go back home to Poland.

gillybob when the new RTI came in I had to change from using the free HMRC provided payroll software as I had too many employees, and so went to Sage. Not only did the initial payroll cost £260 ( discounted purchase through my accountant), I also have to pay an annual fee of £200+. Not only that, as my Windows operating system was a few years old ( but working perfectly) I had to upgrade that at a cost of £280, then had to buy a new laptop to run it. The had to pay someone to show me how to set it up. So, all in all, the RTi cost me close to £1500, where is the fairness in that? Yes, it is tax deductible, but still has to be paid for and wasn't my choice. The holiday pay as described by Silverfish is illegal unless it is yet another case of one set of laws for the SME and one set for the multinationals I have posted on here already about being hounded for my Corporation Tax, despite making three stage payments in two weeks which totalled over three quarters of the amount due. These kind of articles really aren't very helpful as they do not reflect reality for most employers!

The thing is, GillT, it isn't just an article. If you read anything about Richard Murphy, he has been on government committees to try to get the government to get tax from all companies that owe it.
He is really on your side.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/05/22/what-should-a-tax-pledge-by-the-2015-mps-say/
Here's an interesting idea from him today. Do you agree with him?

Good morning durhamjen that gentleman talks a lot of sense! Most people dont object to paying tax, it is the inequality whereby those who can afford to employ tax advisers can pay considerably less than they should. I also agree with the comments about non domicile status. you either live here and pay taxes for the benefit of doing so, things such as NHS, roads, police, etc., or you dont. Many other countries manage this very well. I think it is deeply immoral that people like Phiilip Green ( Arcadia) should be able to have the bulk of his income paid to his wife who lives overseas ( cant remember where, but somewhere with advantageous tax system). I have said this before many times on this forum, but how can a company who owns The Ritz Hotel which is very obviously providing services in the UK, and employing people in the UK, can pay no Corporation Tax? The party that addresses iniquities such as this will get my vote. Thanks for the link, I shall have a further read at what he has written, and I apologise for my misinterpretation of the previous article

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/05/23/hmrc-really-do-not-want-to-collect-corporation-tax/
GillT, more pearls of wisdom about HMRC. How do they get away with it?
Dare you try it? I know I would have been caught. They still chase me now for tax I do not owe.

It certainly confirms my suspicions that HMRC are floundering around and are not coping with the new legislation and with RTI ( Real Time Information). Every week, when I run the payroll, I submit to HMRC and copy the email confirmation from them that they have received it. Every month I get an email from them telling me that unless I start submitting information by RTI I will start being fined . The problem then is that it is absolutely impossible to speak to someone on the 'phone, and so it goes on and on......