With the tax differential between limited company owners and traditional workers substantially reduced due to successive dividend tax hikes, why don’t policy makers take into account the extra costs contractors have to bear compared to employees?

As more and more people decide by choice or otherwise to work for themselves, rather than become traditional employees, the difference in the way groups of workers are taxed has become front page news.

As a result of the upcoming snap General Election, the Government has had to ditch most of the proposed Finance Bill 2017. The dividend allowance cut to £2,000 has been ditched (for now), but the public sector IR35 changes remain.

An online petition has been launched, urging the Government to scrap the April 2017 IR35 changes for contractors working in the public sector.

Philip Hammond’s first Budget will be delivered on March 8th 2017 – it will be the last ‘Spring Budget’. Here, we remind ourselves of the pre-announced tax changes which will start from April this year.

As one eventful year comes to a close, we look forward to 2017 and examine how forthcoming legislative changes and economic events are likely to affect contractors.

Although the new dividend tax regime started on 6th April 2016, it will be some time before company owners feel the effects on their take-home pay. Here, a leading accountant outlines the key dates contractors should prepare for to ensure they are not caught out by the tax hike.