The Noise Chap is changing structure

The Noise Chap is changing structure and this is just a reassurance to clients that all is still exactly as before and it is nothing dodgy, honest. The Noise Chap was trading as a Limited Company but I am in the process of moving over to a Sole Trader model and all new jobs are now done under that Sole Trader model. The Limited company is still there and will be for a while as it winds down, but no new jobs are being done under it.

As long-standing clients will be aware, The Noise Chap Ltd. used to offer health screening services such as audiometry but that part of the business was sold and transferred to Aardvark Occupational Health. I wanted to scale back to just me as a specialist doing noise assessments only.

The issue which prompted the change from Limited Company to Sole Trader was Mr Starmer and his sidekick Rachel From Accounts and their revision of the rules around Employer’s National Insurance. As well as increasing the rate of Employer’s NI, they also removed some of the exemptions which applied to the sole director in a one person business.

The impact was that The Noise Chap Ltd. was just me, but in order to pay myself a salary I had to pay the normal PAYE and employee’s National Insurance that everyone pays, which is fair enough, but now also a comparatively massive chunk of money on top as Employer’s National Insurance. Effectively Ms Reeves and Mr Starmer now demand an additional quite large sum just for the privilege of me paying myself.

There always was Employer’s NI to pay but the rate was manageable before this.

It made paying myself a salary rather ridiculous and since the Employer’s NI changes came in I have paid myself no salary at all (and for the cynically minded, no dividends either) as it was simply not worth it. Thankfully, as well as being a noise nerd I am also an evil slum landlord - having been self-employed for so long my pension has reached the dizzying heights of possibly covering the cost of one Creme Egg a week by the time eventual retirement rolls around, so I made my own arrangements for the future by investing in houses over the years and that has provided short-term income covering the change over.

Switching to a Sole Trader model means no change in the service for clients - it is still me providing the same noise assessment / noise survey services, but I get to pay a normal rate of PAYE and NI contributions without the cripplingly expensive Employer’s National Insurance on top.

And to Rachel Reeves personally

In the hundred million to one chance Rachel From Accounts ever reads this, which let’s face it won’t happen and my writing this is just therapy frankly, the Employer’s NI changes mean I will never employ another person to work alongside me.

Over the years my company supported many families, I paid over-the-odds good salaries and trained people to the point many now have gone on to successful careers.

I paid salaries through the financial crash by taking on personal loans, I paid people full salaries through Covid. I looked after people, but the new Employer’s NI rates mean this will never happen again.

Well done Rachel, well done indeed.