The rapid growth of self-employment in the UK to nearly five million workers has been driven by people in higher-paid work, such as accountancy, law and management consultancy, a report by the Resolution Foundation has found.
It says the "privileged" self-employed, with good educational qualifications and higher earnings, made up 57 per cent of the growth in self-employment after 2009. They also typically earned much more than the average worker, at between £45,000 and £65,000 a year.
Adam Corlett, Economic Analyst at the Resolution Foundation, says: “Rising self-employment has been the biggest jobs story of the last decade, accounting for almost half of all employment growth since the financial crisis.
“… the real recent growth area for the self-employed has been in lucrative sectors such as advertising and banking. This rise is driven in part by a very favourable tax treatment worth thousands of pounds a year to higher earners."
The report noted that for someone in a "privileged" role earning £100,000, switching to being self-employed saves £7,000 in lower employer NICs contributions. It does however say point out some well-documented problems experienced by the self-employed, such as a lack of legal protection, and the fact that the self-employed are less likely to save for a pension.
At Beavis Morgan, we have extensive experience of providing expert advice and planning to self-employed individuals and we are on hand to assist you to remain profitable and increase your net worth.
Our diverse team of tax professionals are also committed to ensuring that your tax reporting obligations are fully satisfied and that every opportunity to lawfully exploit tax savings is made known to you, restructuring your affairs in a tax effective and efficient way.
Our experts will take any future hassle of dealing with HMRC away from you, so you don’t need to contact them directly. We are also able to advise on all aspects of tax whether compliance or planning.
For more information about how we can help you and your business, please contact Steve Govey or your usual Beavis Morgan Partner.