Yes, you read the title correctly, yes they may be left leaning, yes they may be hypocrites of the highest order, no I don’t trust the way they present the news as their agenda is fairly obvious to those of us who read between the lines and use a variety of news sources. But when it comes to their tax arrangements for their ‘employees’ the BBC have it dead right…
BBC bosses came under fire yesterday for paying 25,000 employees “off-the-payroll” in a potential tax avoidance loophole.
MPs said they were “shocked” about the extent of freelance contracts that mean staff do not have income tax and National Insurance contributions deducted from their pay packets.
Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the powerful Public Accounts Committee, warned the arrangement raised “suspicions of tax avoidance”.
In a report the committee said that 13,000 broadcasters – including famous names – are among those paid in this way. The other 12,000 employees are off-air staff.
Around 3,000 BBC employees are paid through private companies, allowing them to reduce their tax liabilities. The figures emerged during an investigation by the MPs into “off-the-payroll” contracts throughout the public sector. Ms Hodge said: “We suspect many in local government and the Health Service do not pay their proper tax and National Insurance contributions.”
Well I have news for you Ms Hodge, what you consider to be proper tax and what the law allows are not the same thing at all and the BBC are doing right by their employees in making sure they only pay the minimum the law allows. I could only wish that a good few more companies would go down the same route.
If the law were to be changed (which it hasn’t) so that doing what the BBC and others are doing is illegal as in becoming evasion, then the idiot Hodge might have a point, as it is she’s bleating on about a perfectly legal activity as if it were a crime, which patently it’s not.
‘Suspicion of tax avoidance’ is not a crime, ‘tax avoidance’ is not a crime no matter how many people in government and the MSM might wish it to be. Tax evasion is a crime, but what the BBC is doing is not evasion, simply good sense for its employees.
There is much to criticise the BBC for, but its tax arrangements for certain employees is not one of them.
True. Not the fault of the BBC or those working for it – it is all down to our ridiculously complex tax system.
Rather than forever chasing down every little loophole of avoidance, Government and HMRC should attack the root-cause of the problem.
But then, too many of their mates might not be happy…..
Agreed. BUT the BBC are a bunch of hypocrites. They whinge enough about tax avoidance. How do they look in the mirror in the morning?
Do they actually have a reflection..?
I’m afraid I have to agree, the BBC are wonderful employers, however the BBC is a Semi-Autonomous State which collects its own taxes and will punish you if you do not pay, it has an Intelligence Unit second to none, criticise it that’s OK, attack it, beware,, it let Saville run, he provided so much depravity which he shared with the elite that he was above the law.
Mona
Like RObert Boothby, you mean?
Shudder.
surely if us plebs got all of our work from one employer we wouldn’t be allowed to claim to be self employed. Why should the metropolitan elite be allowed this perk
Tax avoidance is not only legal, it is a sacred duty.