The Musicians’ Union (MU) will be arguing against measures announced in today’s budget, which will see National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by the self-employed rise by 2%, from 10% to 12%. Class 4 NICs will increase by one per cent in April 2018 and by one per cent in April 2019. The increase will cost every self-employed person on average 60p more a week in tax.
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, said he wanted to address a difference in NICs between those who are self-employed and those in employment which “is no longer justified”, and says that the change will raise a net £145million a year "for our public services by 2021/22".
MU General Secretary John Smith says:
“The MU is not against the idea of people paying their fair share in taxes, but today’s announcement disproportionately disadvantages our members – more than half of whom still earn less than £20,000 per year.
“It is also laughable that, at a time when our public services are being cut to the bone thanks to ideological decisions made by this Government, the Chancellor should claim that this increase in tax for some of the lowest earners will be directed towards public services.
“This Conservative Government and the Coalition Government before it have done nothing but cut funding for the arts and for music, and they are now penalising musicians further by increasing their tax contributions.”