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valvesRus wrote: ↑Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:49 pm

karatestu wrote: ↑Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:43 pm

Limited companies with one director who are the only employee could really be in the shit now. They usually pay themselves a salary up to the NI threshold so they don't have to pay NI . The rest of their income comes from dividends. They are not classed as self employed (just tax dodgers) so don't benefit from the 80% rule. If they furlough themselves then they get 80% of their employee earnings which they have deliberately minimised to under the NI threshold, which is £183 for this tax year. 80% of that is £146.40 which is not a lot to live on if you don't have any put by for a rainy day, many don't. More than Universal Credit though.

The old adage of "you reap what you sow" comes to mind.

It's very hard to feel sorry for those people.

I am exactly one of those people. Decided to go limited entirely for tax purposes. Modest takings (around £24k per year), so I’m not a big deal.
And, I agree with you completely. You make your choices and take the consequences that flow from those choices. I feel discomfort when anyone feels sympathy for my business. I love the freedom and the responsibility that comes with running one’s own business. Wouldn’t want it any other way.
I think the furlough scheme was established for pragmatic reasons rather than sympathy. Without it more people would have carried on leaving home to work (bad for NHS), more people would be unemployed (bad for economy) and more businesses would be going under (bad for economy). I think it’s a consequential issue, not a moral one.
I can access the scheme in exactly the way described above. It’s not a lot, but will help to keep things going so I can still be there when things kick off again. (I work in primary schools so can’t do business atm.)

savvypaul wrote: ↑Tue Apr 14, 2020 11:11 pm https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... he-experts

Well that wasn’t very encouraging.

Docfoster wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 3:15 pm

savvypaul wrote: ↑Tue Apr 14, 2020 11:11 pm https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... he-experts

Well that wasn’t very encouraging.

In January, Matt Hancock had said in the House of Commons that the UK was "well-prepared and well-equipped to tackle any contagion" and that we "had a world-leading test for Covid-19"

Was he misguided or over optimistic...or was he filling in a German passport application?

savvypaul wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:27 pm In January, Matt Hancock had said in the House of Commons that the UK was "well-prepared and well-equipped to tackle any contagion" and that we "had a world-leading test for Covid-19"

Was he misguided or over optimistic...or was he filling in a German passport application?

"Well prepared" - we know it is coming.
"Well equipped" - we have an NHS
"A world leading" - one test kit

At least we're not in America. Attempting to defend Trump's decision to "defund" the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) Kellyanne Conwomanway (remember her?) came up with this classic, on live TV:

"This is COVID-19, not COVID-1 folks, and so you would think the people in charge of the World Health Organization, facts and figures, would be on top of that."

The "19" refers, of course to 2019, the year it was identified.
The W.H.O. haven't, it seems, come up with a cure for "stupid" either.

I have absolutely no doubt Trump will inadvertently kill far more Americans than Al Qaeda -- the guy is a moron -- what amazes me is that he has not been bumped off -- I guess like a growing number of Americans I live in hope

The US COVID deaths graph is looking scary. Poor buggers...

Drat! Thought I had caught him out.

Sorry about wild post. I missed the return quote out.