[News] Staff who work from home after pandemic 'should pay more tax'

[blue-shifted]

You can, as mentioned previously in the thread (posts 11 and 33), for use of electricity and heating.

Personally I don't see why the state (or you and I if you prefer) should be paying for this. If I was in the office, this would be one of the basic things that my employer would pay for, so I think they should be paying for what I need to home work

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Half of Scottish firms say productivity has worsened as a result of home working

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotl...244B-11EB-A5C9-2F9996E8478F&at_medium=custom7

As I mentioned in my earlier post....more anecdotal evidence. For example, how are companies measuring productivity? What sort of businesses are being asked? I struggle to take too much from articles like this.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Like it or not, this pandemic has cost a fortune and we will have to pay for it one way or another and i'm quite prepared to pay more tax as furlough has come at a cost and someone needs to pay it. That said, taxing people more for working from home is a piss take and a flawed argument. For example, "But no-one is eating out" I don't go without lunch you brainless morons because i'm working from home and lose track of time. I might buy from a local sandwich shop or increase the weekly shopping. I still have to buy lunch. The clothing argument is equally as worthless. I'm not in Next every week buying shirts and ties because I work in an office - We all dress like the homeless most of the time at our place unless the customer is coming in and my additional trakky bottom collection has come at a price. Admittedly, the nearest boozer to my work is losing out but the team still seems to be hanging out their arses at various stages and getting through enough booze. We haven't become tea total all of a sudden.

Just because some shit for brains German bank is paying some shiny suited commercial landlord over the odds for their city centre building with a view of the Thames doesn't mean everyone else should pay for it.

 

[Recidivist]

As a matter of interest, how many people here have had good ideas as a result of a chat around the coffee machine, which appears to be one of the favourite claims for the benefit of office working!?

In my experience most conversations around the coffee machine centre around the new girl/guy in personnel or how crap the coffee is rather than serious conversations about the latest corporate strategy!

Maybe it’s just me.......?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pavilionaire]

I think tax policy has to be shaped not only by what is fair in a post-Covid world but also what is good for the environment , whilst factoring in a plan to reinvigorate town centres and prevent them from becoming ghost towns.

Employers are facing a triple whammy: having to pay for unused office space, higher costs with WTO tariffs in a No Deal scenario and higher taxes as we start to pay for Covid.

They are also less likely to retain an office in a town centre if other support businesses are closing all around them, like cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, bakers, chemists.

On a macro level, keeping taxes as they are WILL be putting more money into the pockets of businesses and workers that are run from home, as they will save on commuting and will recover time to enable them to do more stuff around the house they might otherwise have paid other people to do.

So a tax rise of, say, 5% might go unnoticed for homeworkers in terms of cashflow, but would be a bitter blow for those that already commute.

I think a lot of people would be content to pay 5% more tax and work from home. The way to achieve this would be to raise income tax by 5% generally but allow employers based in a defined 'zone' to apply a 5% tax allowance to their employee salaries. I think this would make a real difference to the incomes of employees working in a town centre and also employers having to pay over less PAYE to HMRC.

 

[zefarelly]

for years we've had employers moving away from expensive areas, largely at the expense of employees. . . be thast away from cities, town centres or upping sticks from Brighton and going to Doncaster!

I can work from home some of the time If I have to ( or was allowed) but the nature of project design engineering means access and proximity to group design team and the manufacturing facility.

 

[Napper]

tax the rich.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Just because some shit for brains German bank is paying some shiny suited commercial landlord over the odds for their city centre building with a view of the Thames doesn't mean everyone else should pay for it.

Banks generally don't have shit for brains. I have heard from a friend working for a major bank in the City that their employer:

1 Built their office block at a cost of X
2 Sold it to a landlord for 2X
3 Lent the landlord the money to buy the property thus garnering fees and interest on the loan
4.Will no doubt take back the building when the landlord collapses because of the drop in demand for office space.
5.Then repurpose it as residential and make another fortune.

 

[beorhthelm]

...
I think a lot of people would be content to pay 5% more tax and work from home. The way to achieve this would be to raise income tax by 5% generally but allow employers based in a defined 'zone' to apply a 5% tax allowance to their employee salaries. I think this would make a real difference to the incomes of employees working in a town centre and also employers having to pay over less PAYE to HMRC.

i dont think many people would support it at all. taxes are based on principle of everyone broadly paying the same rate. such a change of taxation would lead unintended consequences, firstly further increasing rent/property prices in town centres, then companies setting up in town centres having more work from home to save office space...

 

[Justice]

Like it or not, this pandemic has cost a fortune and we will have to pay for it one way or another and i'm quite prepared to pay more tax as furlough has come at a cost and someone needs to pay it. That said, taxing people more for working from home is a piss take and a flawed argument. For example, "But no-one is eating out" I don't go without lunch you brainless morons because i'm working from home and lose track of time. I might buy from a local sandwich shop or increase the weekly shopping. I still have to buy lunch. The clothing argument is equally as worthless. I'm not in Next every week buying shirts and ties because I work in an office - We all dress like the homeless most of the time at our place unless the customer is coming in and my additional trakky bottom collection has come at a price. Admittedly, the nearest boozer to my work is losing out but the team still seems to be hanging out their arses at various stages and getting through enough booze. We haven't become tea total all of a sudden.

Just because some shit for brains German bank is paying some shiny suited commercial landlord over the odds for their city centre building with a view of the Thames doesn't mean everyone else should pay for it.

You must have to much money if your happy to pay the debt for people having a year of work with full pay. No such luxuries existed for millions of people

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I'm retired now, but was it just me who took a packed lunch to work? It was rare to visit a sandwich shop.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I think tax policy has to be shaped not only by what is fair in a post-Covid world but also what is good for the environment , whilst factoring in a plan to reinvigorate town centres and prevent them from becoming ghost towns.

Employers are facing a triple whammy: having to pay for unused office space, higher costs with WTO tariffs in a No Deal scenario and higher taxes as we start to pay for Covid.

They are also less likely to retain an office in a town centre if other support businesses are closing all around them, like cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, bakers, chemists.

On a macro level, keeping taxes as they are WILL be putting more money into the pockets of businesses and workers that are run from home, as they will save on commuting and will recover time to enable them to do more stuff around the house they might otherwise have paid other people to do.

So a tax rise of, say, 5% might go unnoticed for homeworkers in terms of cashflow, but would be a bitter blow for those that already commute.

I think a lot of people would be content to pay 5% more tax and work from home. The way to achieve this would be to raise income tax by 5% generally but allow employers based in a defined 'zone' to apply a 5% tax allowance to their employee salaries. I think this would make a real difference to the incomes of employees working in a town centre and also employers having to pay over less PAYE to HMRC.

Erm ..raise income tax by 5% how’s that work for those who can’t work from home and don’t even work in an office or indeed any building

 

[Pavilionaire]

Erm ..raise income tax by 5% how’s that work for those who can’t work from home and don’t even work in an office or indeed any building

The self-employed already have their own Class of National Insurance (2 and 4) so already pay tax at a different rate to employees. HMRC could simply adjust their Class 4 NI rate, as it is the Class 2 that buys state pension and sick pay, while they pay 3% less than the employed.

I already regard the current tax regime as disfunctional and not fit for purpose in a diverse economy with increasing fluidity as to employment status, however if you want to protect town centres then having some sort of tax incentive to keep both businesses and employees there makes sense.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

You must have to much money if your happy to pay the debt for people having a year of work with full pay. No such luxuries existed for millions of people

My work has probably trebled during COVID (for no extra pay naturally) and in that context is "unfair" that I should then suffer an additional tax burden to pay for people who sat on their arse at 80%. In the bigger picture though, what was the alternative? Furlough has kept businesses afloat, people in homes - accepting some people have slipped through the net in the scheme - and stopped the spread of COVID by keeping people out of work unnecessarily. I'm no lover of this government and on balance think it has been the worst in my lifetime but they've done about as well as they could economically even if they have made some cock ups along the way (School meals).

Given the money has gone, it's got to come back from somewhere and I don't think we can be shocked when taxes go up. As much as we'd like Jeff Bezos to cough more up, it won't happen.

 

[Albion Dan]

Not to sure about that many Londoners have been given grants by their companies to build a decent office space at home and never going back in the office.

Really? I live in London and have many professional friends, acquaintances, and interact with literary hundreds of agency and supplier staff on our projects and I don't know one single person who's been afforded that luxury. I even work in digital which would be the most likely industry to be implementing that stuff.

 

[schmunk]

Really? I live in London and have many professional friends, acquaintances, and interact with literary hundreds of agency and supplier staff on our projects and I don't know one single person who's been afforded that luxury. I even work in digital which would be the most likely industry to be implementing that stuff.

With ca. 1,500 people in the London office, we've been given given a budget of £200 each to buy office equipment , e.g a monitor to go with our laptops, but nothing major.

 

[Springal]

Really? I live in London and have many professional friends, acquaintances, and interact with literary hundreds of agency and supplier staff on our projects and I don't know one single person who's been afforded that luxury. I even work in digital which would be the most likely industry to be implementing that stuff.

I know quite a lot of companies have. Unity , the tech company in Brighton gave everyone £200 at the beginning of lockdown I think and then gave them another £250 recently to be spent on stuff to make working from home more comfortable

 

[Driver8]

Really? I live in London and have many professional friends, acquaintances, and interact with literary hundreds of agency and supplier staff on our projects and I don't know one single person who's been afforded that luxury. I even work in digital which would be the most likely industry to be implementing that stuff.

I’ve just had an email to say they are sending me a new laptop, two monitors, and a new office chair!

 

[seagulls99]

Really? I live in London and have many professional friends, acquaintances, and interact with literary hundreds of agency and supplier staff on our projects and I don't know one single person who's been afforded that luxury. I even work in digital which would be the most likely industry to be implementing that stuff.

We were given 400GBP and a hamper

 

[Guinness Boy]

Our office closed in June as the lease was up. We've taken a small shared space in the same town for a couple of the most senior managers to go in and a Finance person and everyone else has worked from home since March. When we tidied the office and put belongings into storage for a post pandemic proper office every staff member was given the option of taking their office chair, keyboard and monitor with them.