Matthew Taylor published his review of modern working practices on 11 July which looks at the implications of new forms of work on worker rights and responsibilities, including tax. It states that the current situation, where a self-employed person doing the same work as an employed person can pay a different amount of tax or NICs despite receiving similar benefits, is "not justified or sustainable or conducive to the goal of a good work economy" and that the current tax system "acts as an incentive for practices such as bogus claims of self-employed status by both businesses and individuals".
In this regard it considers that the government's, now shelved, proposal to align employed and self-employed NICs was the correct approach and that "there is a case for companies and others who engage self-employed labour to contribute more to the overall NICs payments made by the self-employed in the same way as we do for employees".
We can expect that this particular debate will continue with the possible further alignment of the overall tax and NICs burden on employees and the self-employed in the future.