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Chancellor changes his
mind – so who loses out?
In 2002, legislation for limited Companies
reduced Corporation tax rates to 0% on the
first Ł10,000, so if you operated via a
Limited Company and your profit was less
than Ł10,000, there would be nil Corporation
tax to pay.
Based on the above, many accountants in good faith advised their
licensed taxi driving clients that a tax
loophole would give one man businesses who
formed their own limited company, a large
tax saving. So many taxi drivers formed
their own Limited Company.
Now Chancellor Gordon Brown has backtracked after realisation of
what was happening, by saying in his
pre-budget statement – surprisingly tucked
away on page 5 (???) - that owner-managers
of small incorporated businesses should pay
the correct amount of tax on their profits.
Although not coming into force until the
April budget, it seems on the surface to
mean that those who changed to become a
limited company, will have done so for
nothing and be saddled with the costs
involved. As usual, Mr Brown picks on the
small businessman again. Perhaps we should
have a whip-round among ourselves and make a
donation to the Labour party…?
3SPLT and RTL…
Over the years, there has only been one
thing that Bernie May and I have agreed on
and that was the date. Politically, our
views never quite met and to say we had the
odd bust up could possibly be termed as a
gross understatement.
However, we live on the same planet and whether it’s to do with age
or indifference, over the past few years
whilst we still haven’t agreed a great deal,
we’ve had the occasional chat and now we can
disagree in a much nicer type of atmosphere!
But shock, horror… I have to admit that I
actually agree with some of Bernie’s
comments in his Cockney Rebel column in Taxi
Talk regarding the association between Radio
Taxis (London) (RTL) and the Society of
Professional Licensed Taxidrivers (SPLT).
Call Sign’s December issue told
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how the former General
Secretary of SPLT, John-Paul Pace, had been
sacked from his position after being given the
option of resigning, something he refused to
do. John told this magazine that he had no
idea why he was dismissed but that it could be
because he tried to maintain a semblance of
independence from RTL.
Even though I was on DaC, I was invited to the original meeting at
Mountview House along with several others when
SPLT was on the verge of being set up, I was
also at its launch at the Barbican Hotel and I
became one of its first members. I remember
London’s radio stations interviewing Geoffrey
Riesel following the launch of the-then new
organisation. He spoke extremely well
expressing the view that through SPLT, the
licensed taxi trade would elevate its stance
and emphasise the word "professional" in the
SPLT title. That professionalism, he said, was
going to take us beyond just knowing our way
round better than anyone else. I, for one, was
hooked…
Sadly, SPLT never realised its early promise and I left many years
ago to rejoin the LTDA.
The organisation, however, still exists. How many members SPLT
still have is not revealed, but what concerns
me (and Bernie May) is that the RTL Chairman
is also the Chairman of SPLT. Bernie notes
that Mr Riesel is also the Chairman of
Executive First, which Bernie refers to as a
Private Hire minicab company. Be that as it
may, is it right that Dial-a-Cab drivers or
for that matter, ANY radio driver other than
those on RTL should want to be in an
organisation run by the Chairman of our
competition? Not that long ago, RTL took DaC
to the High Court, spending a fortune on a
case they had about as much chance of winning
as Bernie and I have of being invited for
lunch with the Pope.
Bernie has his own agenda with RTL following expulsion several
years ago when someone (whose |
name I was told at the time, but will not reveal), passed on at least one
email from the Internet taxi list that Call
Sign’s Vince Chin ran, to the RTL Board. The
email was critical of their BoM and Bernie was
expelled.
That experience is irrelevant to this matter and I mention it only
because someone will say that the only reason
Bernie May has brought up the SPLT topic is
because he is bitter against RTL. Well I have
no such problems with RTL, but I too say that
for an open trade organisation to be run by
the Chairman of a radio taxi organisation is
wrong. As a DaC driver, I would not want to be
represented by Mountview and there is now no
disputing that they control SPLT lock, stock
and barrel. While the LTDA were linked to
ComCab, in my view the scenario was totally
different to that of SPLT and RTL. As always,
your comments are welcome…
Cecil Selwyn
Like most people, I was shocked to hear of
Cecil Selwyn’s death. I knew that he had been
ill for some time but always expected him to
bounce back. But it wasn’t to be.
This trade owes Cecil a tremendous debt, especially when it came to
battling the minicabs that used to gather
outside the Dover Street Wine Bar. It was
Cecil more than anyone, probably through sheer
stubbornness, who eventually got the licensed
trade a rank outside. Wherever minicabs
gathered, sooner or later you would see Cecil
there.
He also had his irritating side – one that he admittedly recognised
– but he believed that right was right and
that nothing should stand in its way.
I spent several years attending LTDA meetings with Cecil and
although I didn’t necessarily always agree
with him, you couldn’t help but admire the
work he would put into his argument. He would
spend hours at Company House in City Road
checking who had or hadn’t paid their accounts
on time; that wasn’t to get anyone into
trouble, but because he believed it to be
right.
If the days of characters within this trade are slowly slipping
away, then no one can deny that Cecil was one
of the last of a dying breed. Rest in peace…
Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com |
