Whether you’re a freelancer or an umbrella company contractor it’s in your best interest to support Small Business Saturday, says one major industry body.
PCG came out in support of Small Business Saturday in a big way recently, and with no time to spare considering that the event is today. Aimed towards highlighting just how important small businesses are to the betterment of the UK economic recovery, Small Business Saturday should naturally include the accomplishments of contractors as part of the celebration, the campaign group said, especially in light of how the British economy benefited from some £95 billion in revenue last year thanks to freelance workers.
Now I’m all for solidarity within the ranks – we need to all pull together or we’ll pull apart, and so on and so forth – but isn’t this just a little bit of an example of PCG preaching to the converted? I mean let’s face it: freelancers and contractors already support small businesses, as SMEs make up a large proportion of the kinds of clients that these individuals complete projects for on a regular basis. Garnering the support of one another is all well and good, but don’t we need as a community – if indeed freelance workers and contractors are going to be welcomed with open arms into the SME community – to appeal to other sectors for more support, most importantly the Government?
It seems like the Government – specifically the Treasury – is constantly having a go at SMEs and contractors even as it lets large-scale corruption slip by unfettered. How many IR35 investigations have contractors had to endure, even when they were in no danger of being guilty of using disguised employment to avoid paying their fair share of tax, simply because Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs is too busy being afraid of going after the blatant tax evasion of large multinationals? Far too many, if you ask me; for what it’s worth, we need to get the Government on our side for once and not waste so much time patting each other on the back for a job well done.
