The next one is free...

Lunchtime walk to the usual hangout. Once again, I seem to have reached that point where my next drink is a freebie. I wonder if that is paid for by the big pile of money Starbucks should be paying in tax?

As a freelancer, tax is one of those issues very close to my heart. Recent media coverage has concentrated on the number of people paid "off payroll" and classed them as tax dodgers and disguised employees without any real understanding of how their companies are set up or the legitimate financial risks they face. Laws are passed and departments set up to claw back as much tax as possible (usually very little) from people who are working as best they can within unbelievably woolly laws and the restrictions placed on them by clients and their industry as a whole. All the while, massive corporations, and their fleets of accountants and lawyers, hide huge amounts of money that should legitimately be paid in tax by exploiting loopholes the government have not closed.

The sums invested in trying to claw back money from small businesses are scary. The fear and uncertainty this causes small businesses is just as scary. The amounts actually clawed back (because court cases have proved the laws unworkable) are pathetic. Yet the amounts of tax that could be generated by closing loopholes and forcing a single large corporation to pay up could dwarf years of tax income from the small business community.

Never mind. My next coffee is free.