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Chancellors statement could be bad news for the self employed

Last Updated on: 21st November 2023, 09:58 pm

The Chancellors budget statement on Wednesday could deliver bad news to the self-employed, say leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg

Nimesh Shah, a partner at the firm said: “The Chancellor will more than likely focus on business support measures, to stimulate activity and generate employment, but his statement could also deliver bad news for the self-employed.”

He added: “The Government and the Chancellor have made no secret of their desire to increase taxes for the self-employed, and especially those that operate through limited companies.  When the Chancellor announced the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (‘SEISS’) at the end of March, it came with a warning that the self-employed would have to pay back that support in the future.

“Under the current rules, self-employed individuals benefit from a lower rate of National Insurance on profits – Class 4 National Insurance at 9%/2% rather than Class 1 National Insurance at 12%/2% which apply for an employed worker.  A self-employed individual making profits of £40,000 has take-home pay of £31,755; an employed worker with the same salary has take-home pay of £30,840 – the self-employed individual is better off by £915 per year.”

Nimesh said : A number of self-employed individuals operate their business/trade through limited companies and pay themselves through dividends – in recent years and following changes to the dividend tax regime, any tax benefit of receiving dividends has reduced; where a person extracts all the profits from the company as dividend, they may even be worse-off.  However, many that operate their business through a company choose to pay themselves a small salary (up to the National Insurance threshold) and dividends for what they need for their living – the balance of profits can be left in the company.”

He added: “The Chancellor could announce changes to the self-employed by abolishing the Class 4 National Insurance and effectively harmonising the National Insurance regime for the self-employed and employed worker.  For a self-employed worker making profits of £60,000, such a change could leave them £1,215 worse-off per annum.

“A further proposal would be to abolish the lower dividend tax rates (currently 7.5%/32.5%/38.1%) and align to normal income tax rates (20%/40%/25%).  This change would have a heavy impact on a self-employed worker using a company and paying themselves through dividends.  For someone generating profits of £100,000 and paying themselves in dividends, they would see a reduction in take home pay of over £6,000 per annum.

Nimesh said: “Harmonising the dividend tax rates with income tax rates would have wider implications for those with savings in share portfolios, such as pensioners, as they would see a higher rate of tax applied to their income as a result.”

Appendix                    
    TAKE HOME PAY      
     Current  Harmonised NIC  Harmonised income tax      
   Income Level  Self-employed  Dividends  Self-employed  Dividends  Self-employed  Dividends      
                 25,000.00 £17,555 £16,073 £17,240 £16,073 £17,555 £15,860      
                 40,000.00 £31,755 £31,058 £30,840 £31,058 £31,755 £28,820      
                 60,000.00 £44,655 £43,268 £43,440 £43,268 £44,655 £39,560      
              100,000.00 £67,855 £65,138 £66,640 £65,138 £67,855 £59,000      
              200,000.00 £118,355 £118,203 £117,140 £118,203 £118,355 £104,500      
                     
Notes          
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