Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Chat

[rth_discos]

It's for people that own limited companies who take dividends rather than salary , of course there is one other big sting in the tail we won't mention , poetic justice some might say .

Someone who owns a Limited Company and takes dividends isn't self employed - they are a director.

And most of the benefits of being paid via dividends have been reduced in recent years anyway.

Self employed do not pay less. They only pay tax on their profits. Which is no different to employees in many respects.

Plus, there has to be consideration for the risks that those who are self employed take.

The issue in this country isn't the self employed. It's the multi national companies who manage to divert their profits out of the country. Trying to run a coffee shop up against a Starbucks for example.

[Nakatomi]

Not that I was honestly expecting to be promised a wad of cash by the government today, but being someone whose main income isn't self employment I'll get nowt.

My heart goes out to you if this game is your only income & I hope you find a way through. As for those who operate under the HMRC's radar .. well they've had it coming for a long time. Would I really want to see Sidney out begging on the street for food though? Somehow I think his cunning mind will find something to get him through.

It's going to be a valuable lesson for a lot of people to live less in the now & always try to put some money aside when everything comes back on the level - whenever that's gonna be. Then we've got the joy of £220bn extra national debt to look forward to. Who's paying for all these handouts again? Oh yeah.. US!

[Imagine]

It's going to be a valuable lesson for a lot of people to live less in the now & always try to put some money aside when everything comes back on the level - whenever that's gonna be. Then we've got the joy of £220bn extra national debt to look forward to. Who's paying for all these handouts again? Oh yeah.. US!

I'm getting now't because of a clever accountant and the genuine and honest truth that I've spent every single penny I earned until last April when I went full time self employed on reinvestment. Seems like a very big mistake at the moment but this is the second time I've been in the position of being unemployed, and I've NEVER asked the state for help (call me old fashioned and stupid, but I'm also a very proud person that doesn't like to rely on handouts when others are more in need....does that make sense?).

My plan at the moment to tide us over is shelf filling or deliveries (have van, WILL work). BUT - over 200 people have applied to the local Tesco's alone....not much chance there then. Talking to people that have signed up as Amazon drivers last night, there's not a lot going there either (think Uber, but with a van). G's fresh (think salad stuff....they're just down the road from me) are offering £400 a week to pick lettuces and carrots....I'm not quite that desperate yet (it's bloody back breaking work with the amount of bending and my knees and sciatic nerve won't take it!)

Why don't I use my qualifications and experience as a software engineer in these tough times? Because there's no work (trust me, I've spoken to contacts who are struggling to get paid including one of last year's brides, plus when I was made redundant last year I vowed never to go into that game again....it's waaaay too stressful)

Yes, this IS my job, but I'm one of the few that will survive this thing. Liz works (just a couple of feet away from me at the dining room table at the moment!), and although her wages alone won't keep us afloat, it'll numb the pain. We've always built up savings (I can go another couple of years without panicking but would rather not run things down that far). Because of those two factors, Universal Credit is out of the question.

I'm good at what I do, my previous customers say so, and I had a bumper 2020 on the books with £30k of bookings in the bag (mainly all-day weddings and kids parties). Most of the weddings are now going to be in 2021 (thankfully they're all rescheduling and there have been some really heart-wrenching phone calls over the past couple of weeks). For the first time ever, it looked like I could actually earn a decent crust from doing a job I LOVE!

More worryingly though....I was on a Zoom meeting last night with some of the REALLY big "multi award-winning" names in the industry (and they've always been an inspiration and have personally taught me a lot of secrets). They are absolutely and quite rightly passing bricks at the moment and are unlikely to survive the current storm...and that's quite scary - especially if you know who they are.

As for how this will be paid back?

Ltd company perks such as tax breaks on taking a dividend will go (they've been reducing those for years anyway). The rest? My bet is an increase in the VAT rate. It's the fairest way - the biggest consumers pay the most and it's one hell of a treasure chest.

Don't forget as well that there will be a bumper tax payment to UKGov in January from the deferred second payments which are due in July

My honest predictions for the coming year (2020/21)....

* We'll see a massive boost in weddings and parties once the restrictions are lifted...for a short while. These will all be postponements which have carried forward. It will be very short lived.
* SID will have become bored, sold his kit and moved onto other things
* Weddings will become smaller affairs such as a marquee in the back garden. I'm more than prepared for those and do a lot of them already (happy days)
* Big venue (hotels, stately homes etc.) weddings will be a thing of the past (the venues won't survive this). I'm banking on a lot of blank-canvas weddings in marquees and tipis in the middle of nowhere (and I'm READY for those).
* Interactive kids parties where you play games and talk to the guests will survive (there's a definite outdoing the friends thing in that market)

Things are going to get tougher, and we're going to have to fight even harder for every gig if we're to survive in the future.

Challenge accepted!

[Excalibur]

As for those who operate under the HMRC's radar .. well they've had it coming for a long time. Would I really want to see Sidney out begging on the street for food though? Somehow I think his cunning mind will find something to get him through.

Someone else brought this up on Fb. Hurrah! Mind you, Sid probably is on 80% of his PAYE income, cos he had a main job, so I don't expect it will cull many of his herd.

I'm getting now't because of a clever accountant and the genuine and honest truth that I've spent every single penny I earned until last April when I went full time self employed on reinvestment.

Fully expected you to fall outside the safety net. Hope you find something to put a crust on the table. For what it's worth, the chancellors system will work passably well for me, I'm currently working on a pig farm, and I have one or two of those as customers near me, so hopefully that will get me to June and beyond. .

My honest predictions for the coming year (2020/21)....

* We'll see a massive boost in weddings and parties once the restrictions are lifted...for a short while. These will all be postponements which have carried forward. It will be very short lived. Correct.
* SID will have become bored, sold his kit and moved onto other things. If only!
* Weddings will become smaller affairs such as a marquee in the back garden. I'm more than prepared for those and do a lot of them already (happy days) Smaller and therefore ( in clients' eyes) cheaper.
* Big venue (hotels, stately homes etc.) weddings will be a thing of the past (the venues won't survive this). I'm banking on a lot of blank-canvas weddings in marquees and tipis in the middle of nowhere (and I'm READY for those). Me too. Love them.
* Interactive kids parties where you play games and talk to the guests will survive (there's a definite outdoing the friends thing in that market). I was with you all the way, up to this bit. That's a bridge too far, even for me.

Things are going to get tougher, and we're going to have to fight even harder for every gig if we're to survive in the future.

Challenge accepted!

The lad's pretty much on the money. Well said.

[rth_discos]

Ltd company perks such as tax breaks on taking a dividend will go (they've been reducing those for years anyway). The rest? My bet is an increase in the VAT rate. It's the fairest way - the biggest consumers pay the most and it's one hell of a treasure chest.

Agreed about dividends. That has to change.

But I don't agree with raising VAT. It disproportionately affects the lowest paid.

The easiest fix is clamping down on the multi national companies who transfer their profits out of the country.

Starbucks for example pays a huge 'license fee' on each cup of coffee sold, so that the profit that would be taxable in this country ends up in another country, where the tax is far lower. That needs to be clamped down on. Not only so that we get some of the tax we're due, but also so there's a level playing field.

Having been to the likes of Germany, Spain and Italy in the last couple of years, the UK is over-run with national chains compared to those countries. Sure, they have some national chains, but there's also lots of independent shops and coffee shops. They have a level playing field against the national corporations.

That's how we entice people back to setting up their own businesses, and bringing some individuality back on the high street (I don't holiday in the UK any more as I don't want to go to another part of the country to find a clone of my own high street).

It's a myth that we need to pay this back. We can print the money. They said they were going to provide a £330bn package. Instead of giving that to those big corporations, they could have just sent every adult in the UK £5k in to their bank account. Think what difference that could have made...

The easiest way to 'pay this back' is to make the debt smaller. Mass inflation can achieve that.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

As expected, these measures won't help me due to my teaching wage.

Totally appreciate that I'm very fortunate to be in that situation but in real terms it's still potentially a £20k+ kick in the nads as far as this years earnings go.

My wife works for KPMG and although there's no signs of it, I do worry about her stability long term. She's in that kind of grey area between management management and worker ant which tend to be the first ones to go in cost cutting measures. I hope I'm just being pessimistic.

[DJColsie]

As expected, these measures won't help me

Totally appreciate that I'm very fortunate to be in that situation but in real terms it's still a kick in the nads.

Snap. DJing is about 35% of my income so nothing for me.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Just now I've been pretty lucky in that all but one reschedule I've been able to accommodate.

My only concern is a lot of them are only moving things a few months so we could be going through this all again come June and July if lock down and travel restrictions continue.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Just now I've been pretty lucky in that all but one reschedule I've been able to accommodate.

My only concern is a lot of them are only moving things a few months so we could be going through this all again come June and July if lock down and travel restrictions continue.

That's becoming a big concern for myself now as well sadly. Fingers crossed we're out of this by end of April but who knows at this point.

[rth_discos]

That's becoming a big concern for myself now as well sadly. Fingers crossed we're out of this by end of April but who knows at this point.

I can say with 99% confidence we're not coming out of this by the end of April. We keep hearing on the TV 12 weeks.

Even when we do, things will come back to life slowly. There won't be a sudden 'end'.

Sadly, it's unlikely that large gatherings (pubs, clubs, venues etc) will come back online until the very end.

For those who rely on this to pay the bills, I would assume worst case scenario that the whole year is wiped out and start taking action now to bring in revenue via another means (if the self assessment amount doesn't worm out for you).

Should it end earlier, see it as a bonus.

I'm crossing fingers we can get back to weddings in Aug/Sept, but I believe that's an earliest, and even then I'm only 50% confident.

** EDIT **

Based on what we're seeing in Italy, etc, the number of deaths are going to keep the registrars very busy. I can't see the registration of weddings (civil ceremonies) being back for a long time because of that. I think that could be the factor that delays weddings the most, as there could be a big backlog of death registrations to get through.