Budget 2015 Economics: How the state ham mers the self-employed
The tax system routinely charges more tax on self-employed people, like the USC, which they pay at a rate of 11 per cent to employees’ 8 per cent.
It is perverse. Despite claims to the contrary, the package of tax cuts last Tuesday was oriented towards income earners in the middle range. Tax cuts don’t help much if you’re not paying much tax to start with. People at the average wage and a bit above were the real winners. Higher earners did not do quite as well. The minister re-engineered the universal social charge (USC) as a tax primarily aimed at ...
