Sunak told self-employed won’t survive tax rises

With the Chancellor currently drawing up plans to plug the hole in Britain’s finances, Rishi Sunak has been warned that many contractors will not be able to survive if they are forced to pay more tax, with many having received no support at all during the coronavirus pandemic. Derek Cribb, the head of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, says Mr Sunak will find it difficult to sell the idea that the self-employed should pay more tax to “fill the coffers that have been emptied out into other people’s pockets”. However, the University of Oxford’s Professor Judith Freedman backs the idea of aligning the taxes of self-employed workers with normal employees arguing that the tax system was a poor way of rewarding risk. Ms Freedman also believes the tax base should be broadened by making pensioners pay national insurance. “I don’t think it will be popular but I think it probably should be done ” she said.