New Year Message from the PCG Chairman

Fellow PCG members,

2002 has been a challenging year for the PCG, and a difficult one for many of our members, many of whom have suffered due to the economic downturn and the knock-on effect that's had particularly in the IT sector. But we've survived and while I believe there's no guarantee of a prosperous New Year ahead, we are confident that as an organisation we will continue to make progress on a range of issues on behalf of all our members.

Although this time last year the PCG failed in its attempt to strike down the controversial IR35 tax at the court of appeal, we are pleased that practical measures available to our members have been of positive help.

The PCG's inclusive Tax Investigation Cover has saved our members over £1.6 million to date in professional fees and wrongly-claimed IR35 tax. On top of this, over 200 PCG members have had their cases handled under the scheme and of the 82 which have been concluded all 82 have been won - the total benefit to freelancers of winning all these cases would be well over £4m, and the rate at which the cases arise is still accelerating.

We are delighted to have had a meeting with the Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo MP, and hope to continue dialogue with the government and the Inland Revenue. PCG's Gurdial Rai continues his excellent work on work permits and must take much of the credit for getting the IT Skills Shortage list abolished in 2002 which was a great triumph for the PCG. We are keeping a watchful eye on this, as well as campaigning against the abuse and exploitation of the Intra-Company Transfer Scheme.

The PCG is committed to working for its members, and in partnership with government, REC, ATSCO, AMICUS, BCS, FSB and others. While we expect some tough times ahead, we hope 2003 will be a good year for our members & colleagues.

Jane Akshar
PCG Chairman

WWW.PCG.ORG.UK

You are reminded that the new home of PCG is www.pcg.org.uk, please bookmark it now!

Discounted contract reviews for PCG Members

As we enter 2003, contractors have to consider their IR35 status for the preceding year. Although, the final deadline for declaring IR35 isn't until the spring, various accounting choices that have a bearing, will have to be made as early as 31st January.

We are anxious to ensure that all PCG members have the best quality advice before making decisions that could have a massive effect on the amount of tax due and we are therefore delighted to announce that PCG affiliates Qdos and Accountax are offering substantial additional discounts from the normal cost of contract reviews. Both have slashed over £100 from their normal PCG discounted rates.

The deal is identical with both. As a PCG member you may have your contract reviewed for just £199 +VAT with a guaranteed turnaround of 5 working days. The offer is valid until end of march 2003.

At this price no PCG member has any excuse to make the wrong decision and, since the savings are more than the cost of annual PCG membership, you really do have something to tell that nonmember sitting next to you at your client site too!

Accountax and Qdos details can be found on the main website. Discussion, as usual, in our forum.

Invitation To Tender for various PCG Marketing Initiatives

Requirement

The PCG Board of Directors has identified a number of marketing opportunities and will shortly be issuing Invitations To Tender to prospective bidders, who will be invited to submit discrete tenders for some or all of them.

Seperate Terms of Reference are available for each, but these are commercially sensitive and will not be openly published in advance. Instead they will be sent, on request, to those prospective bidders that we are convinced are both serious and credible.

As a PCG member, you will be aware of the organisation's background and ambitions so if you know of any marketing specialist who you believe would be interested and capable of playing some part in ensuring our continuing success, please invite them to contact us as soon as possible by email to the following address...

[email protected] and cc to [email protected] and [email protected]

... providing brief details of - Own company background including history of successfully fulfilling similar requirements.

Timescales are very short and it may not be possible to consider all candidates at this stage, however details will be retained on file for future requirements.
ISO9001

In conjunction with one of our members, the PCG is considering the merits of helping members to achieve ISO9001 accreditation at an affordable (possibly as low as £100 per annum) cost and minimal administrative overhead. At this stage, we just want to establish how many members might consider such a scheme and, if sufficient members are interested to make it worthwhile, we will put some effort into developing a suitable scheme. Please visit the thread at http://www.pcg.org.uk/threads/showpost.pl?f=Commercial-13075&p=0&v=c&s=5 to record your interest without obligation.

Offline Reader for the PCG Discussion Boards

An enterprising PCG member has developed an offline reader, composer and manager which may be of interest to members with limited time for visiting the PCG discussion boards. ForaView is distributed as shareware and more details can be found at http://www.smallofficesolutions.co.uk/foraview.htm.

Work In Progress

Future editions of the weekly email newsletter will include an indication of some of the work currently in progress. This will be provided in bullet point form only (any further details may be given via the forums) and will exclude any items that may be commercially sensitive. The list currently includes....

• Welcoming our new Office Manager, Kevin Stearns, who joins us today.
• Developing administration functions and processes for use by our new office staff.
• Website housekeeping, including a bit of a facelift.
• Designing a whole new database structure that will form the basis of future developments.
• Getting elements of our marketing programme off the ground.
• Progressing a wholesale revamp of all of our marketing material, including a brand new consistent theme that will also be reflected in a totally redesigned website later during 2003.
• Continuing to meet and develop a working relationship with ATSCo representatives. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 15th January.
• Negotiating new membership goodies (e.g. discounted contract reviews, Regus office accommodation/secretarial facilities, preferential hotel rates, etc.).
• Meeting with our insurance broker/underwriters to negotiate terms for the coming 12 months.
• Starting work on a new financial accounting regime that will save us circa £28k per annum and give us tighter controls.
• Kicking off a proactive programme of media coverage.
  Preparing an intensive membership recruitment campaign that starts in January.
• Continuing to work on eliminating ICT abuses, campaigning for better security clearance arrangements, etc.
  

Please feel free to forward this email newsletter!