Tax advantage to being a contractor (RTE top earners)???

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Frank

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So many of these entertainers are contractor

I assume this for tax reasons as there is the downside of job insecurity.

Is this the case?
 
2 things can think of: As RTE are hiring these guys on contract they don't have to pay employers PRSI. They are availing of a service so I think they can write off the VAT on it and don't have to pay redundancy on termination. As a self-employed person the Contractor can get an Executive Pension (higher return), reclaim TAX on expenses and probably will get more money from RTE due to the TAX RTE is saving. Everybody wins :) Except the TAX man of course and us as a result..
 
Well as we have seen the Contracts were renegotiated downward severely. Pat Kenny would have had a reduction of c. €400k.
There is no job security nor pension and its been the way since RTE was established.
 
GenerationXer said:
.... Everybody wins :) Except the TAX man of course and us as a result..
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Eh....don't you mean everybody wins apart from the tax man and those paying the licence fee (who are seeing their annual licence fee keep a few of RTEs favorites in luxurious lifestyles) ? :(

Why we need a state broadcasting company with two national tv channels, further digital tv channels and who knows how many radio stations... not to mention a prime Donnybrook property which is not essential for RTE's business, is beyond me. A single state owned tv channel and one or two national radio stations would be more than sufficient, given the level of services available from the commercial sector. Complete waste of taxpayer resources.....more than half of the RTE assets could be sold, with funds use to help finance the cost of the new childrens hospital, the light rail link to Dublin airport etc.
 
Not clear why it's allowed. From memory the BBC had people on similar contracts and HMRC came after them. Can't imagine the current RTE setup passes the employee test.
 
MrEarl said:
Eh....don't you mean everybody wins apart from the tax man and those paying the licence fee
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Yes, when I said the TAX man and us, the "us" I was referring to is the little guy paying their license fee without the option to opt out, paying for salaries we couldn't hope to earn ourselves, same old story :(
 
GenerationXer said:
....same old story :(
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This sort of thing will only continue, as long as we permit it to continue :)

I think if we alll put pressure on our politicans to sell some of the non-core / non-essential parts of RTE, it would be a good move. UTV took a decision recently to sell their terrestrial broadcast tv station and with good reason, they could not compete and knew the asset would drop in value over the years to come. We should be doing the same, with regards to our excess TV station (one state channel makes sense, no more), excess radio stations etc.

If we got something close to €200m for say RTE2 and 2FM, just think of what we could do with that money (in terms of state investment in something we need) !

Needless to say, if we didn't own so many tv and radio stations, then we wouldn't need to pay such a significant licence fee either ;)
 
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