Yes, you heard it here first, there was something good in Liz Truss’s mini-budget: she abolished, or tried to abolish IR35. The ‘IR’ stands for Inland Revenue, so you can see it’s a regulation, or attempt at a regulation, which goes back to pre-HMRC days (that’s when it was merged with Customs & Excise, kids etc.). It’s meant to stop big firms contracting with workers via their own one-man limited companies, and so avoiding PAYE and NI when the workers in questions are, as they would see it, actually employees. It’s been pretty much unenforceable, or, at best, enforceable on a pretty patchy basis and where it’s been challenged the taxmen have lost as many times as they’ve won. The Truss argument was that it stifled enterprise and cost more to run or not run than it brought in. And, I’m choking on the words, I think she and Kwasi were right. Jeremy Vine is the latest of a number of high profile stars they’ve gone after, who have the means and inclination to challenge them. Over to you, Rachel and Keir.
“2024 a mixed year for sustainable investing, report finds”
lthough in theory the environment (pardon the) for sustainable/ethical/responsible funds improved significantly last year, the performance of many did not. Excluding oil/mining/guns/fags all hampered their performance in the aftermath of Ukraine.
