Loan Charge contractors to march on Westminster

A protest in London against Loan Charge 2019 is calling on critics of the April tax to join its march to meet MPs on Wednesday February 27th.

Announcing both a “demonstration” and “lobby day,” the Loan Charge Action Group said it would be marching from Parliament Square to Westminster to “get the message across.”

To be noted down by MPs from the Loan Charge APPG who will be on hand to take evidence from the protestors, LCAG’s message is that the charge is “retrospective, unfair and will have disastrous consequences.”

'Battle'

“They [the MPs from the Loan Charge APPG] are going in to battle for you so come and stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they do so,” the lobby group said.

“[And] you can use this opportunity to lobby your MP…[if you in advance] email them to meet you in Westminster.”

To get involved, LCAG said individuals should simply turn up at Parliament Sq at just before 11am on the 27th, with the demonstration due to run until 12.30.

'Your chance'

“The Demonstration and Lobby Day is your chance to show the government that they can’t get away with this punitive legislation,” LCAG said.

“By coming together as a group, we are making it clear to those policy makers that we will not tolerate this damaging charge and that change must happen.”

The call to action comes after IPSE, the contractor trade group, argued that the “Loan Charge problem will never go away” as long as the Off-Payroll rules exist.

'Snake oil salesmen'

IPSE’s premise is that, short on resources, agencies have outsourced the payrolling of ‘inside IR35’ contractors to umbrella companies, some of which are said to be using loan schemes.

The very same sort of schemes, argued IPSE’s Andy Chamberlain, with the “same snake oil salesmen”, that have landed many contractors within the crosshairs of the 2019 Loan Charge.

Although Mr Chamberlain emphasised that the evidence for umbrellas using such schemes was “anecdotal”, a chartered tax adviser has told ContractorUK much the same -- that public sector contractors are being remunerated via loans, since reforms to IR35 were made in 2017.