How Philip Hammond’s National Insurance hike affects the ‘gig economy’

You might argue that the self-employed enjoy less security than the employed, so it’s fair they contribute less; you might argue that the ‘sharing economy’ is a nifty pocket-money source for hard-pressed families, and that tax grabs will swiftly kill it. But revenue-starved Chancellor Hammond will retort that all income and commerce, however novel in form, must be taxed unless specifically exempted, otherwise government can’t make ends meet: tax should keep pace with changing patterns of life and technology. Thus Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently proposed that if robots are replacing humans in business, then companies operating robots should pay income tax on their behalf. Back in 1991, Chancellor Norman Lamont had an even better idea, though at the time it was scorned: a tax on mobile phones. Think what a massive revenue earner that would have been by now.

This is an extract from Martin Vander Weyer’s ‘Any Other Business’, which