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!
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