Before I begin, I want to make it clear that I have nothing but respect for Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs: fine, upstanding people who want only to ensure that the government collects the proper and fair amount of tax it needs to finance all those things we love, such as HS2 and subsidies for offshore wind and vital foreign projects like the one that funded the Ethiopian Spice Girls.
That said, I have to ask: what is it you hate about us self-employed? Or rather, why is your boss Philip Hammond so determined to make our lives so miserable, first with his mooted National Insurance hike (cancelled only after protests from Tory MPs), then with his vindictive IR35 tax laws (aimed at reducing the number of people with self-employed status), and now with this wretched new programme called Making Tax Digital?
Read the rest in the Spectator.