Taxing time for Munt
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• Harry Munt, whose haulage company H and M Light Transport of Puckeridge in Hertfordshire is fighting a battle with the Department of Health and Social Security over classifying his self-employed drivers, was landed with a 224,750 bill from the Inland Revenue last week.
When this is added to his still-outstanding 216,230 bill from the DHSS, he is now just under 241,000 in debt — without just cause, he says.
The row basically centres around whether Munt, and many small hauliers like him, can classify drivers who work on a sub-contract basis more or less every day for their firms, as self-employed.
The DHSS argues that because the drivers rely for most of their income on just one haulage firm, they should be classified as full-time employees.
Munt and the hauliers argue that the drivers are employed on a sub-contract basis and that they should pay their own National Insurance stamps. The DHSS, however, has been serving the companies with large retrospective back tax bills for the National Insurance monies it believes they should have paid.
A group of 20-plus hauliers with similar bills has now joined Munt's campaign and they have written to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asking for talks on resolving the dispute.