A new Tom Cruise film being shot at the Leavesden-based Warner Brothers’ studios near Watford could bring an employment boom for movie industry umbrella service contractors.
All You Need is Kill, a new science fiction thriller starring the world’s most famous Scientologist in a leading role, is likely to create around 500 new jobs as the movie production gets underway. Freelance worker with the right mix of skills and experience are likely to benefit the most, with IT contractors working through umbrella companies with experience in special and digital effects rumoured to be the most in demand.
Chancellor Osborne was quick to take credit for the new film, claiming that the tax system in the UK is responsible for creating an environment for innovation and investment. Of course, even as Mr Osborne pats himself on the back for such an accomplishment, the government is busily pointing fingers at contractors for supposedly contributing to a culture of tax avoidance in the UK, pointing to the currently tumultuous IR35 issues plaguing so many businesses.
Meanwhile, it’s an open secret that the recent IR35 guidance updates published by HMRC have been absolutely horrid, with the consensus being that they’ve made an already relatively convoluted situation that much worse by adding needless layers of complexity without actually changing IR35 tax law. Most freelance experts have counselled nervous contractors to take the new guidance updates with the proverbial grain of salt, especially if they were considered low-risk for IR35 before their publication.
The government can’t praise their tax system on one hand and then condemn those its taxing with the other before people simply get tired of it. It’s a shame Whitehall doesn’t treat UK workers with the same deference it treats to Warner Brothers.
