Business Diary: May 29

What do you do with staff who are determined to see the likes of Sheffield’s Jessica Ennis go for gold?

Diary has discovered that help is on hand from an unexpected source.

For the first time, TV Licensing has produced a guide which could preserve workplace harmony during major sporting events.

Some of the biggest Olympic events, such as the opening event of the women’s heptathlon and key parts of the track cycling programme, will take place during normal working hours.

A TV licence is needed for watching or recording any programme on television, so viewing sports at work will mean the business needs to be licensed to avoid risking breaking the law, a prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.

Jenny Wilkinson, TV Licensing spokesman for Northern England, said yesterday: “This guide helps everybody in the workplace be clear about whether they can watch programmes as they are being shown on TV at work. We know that managers will be thinking about whether they want to allow employees or visitors to watch. So we designed this simple guide for them to use to let staff and visitors know if the premises are licensed or not, and what their viewing policy is.

“We want to encourage businesses to get licensed in time for the summer of sport if people are going to be viewing live TV in the workplace.”

A socialist secretary?

IS Business Secretary Vince Cable a socialist? According to venture capitalist and employment law reformer Adrian Beecroft, he is.

Diary wonders if other leading business people feel the same way about the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills.

Is he a socialist? “No comment,” laughed David Sproul, UK chief executive of Deloitte, the Big Four beancounter. “I think when you got to what drives business success, I think Vince comes from a point of view that believes rules and regulations are appropriate to drive that business success. I don’t think he’s against business success at all, but he happens to believe that you’ve got to regulate that success. Those in opposition or on the opposite side of the argument that would say you’ve got to free up regulation and clearly it’s a balance.

“I happen to believe that what business needs is less regulation, not more regulation.”

Mr Beecroft has produced 23 proposals to reform employment law, including one which would allow firms to sack under-performing staff, which Dr Cable duly described as “bonkers”.

But does that make him a socialist? Diary would like to know what readers think.

Freedom curtailed

Did you cheer as the sun rose this morning? Perhaps, you should.

Today, it seems is Tax Freedom Day, the day when the average UK citizen will finally have earned enough to pay their taxes. Now, apparently, we can start working for ourselves.

But perhaps we shouldn’t celebrate just yet. For 149 days since January 1, 2012, every penny earned by the average UK taxpayer will have gone to pay for government spending.

Gordon Singer, a partner in PwC’s tax team in Leeds, warned that Tax Freedom Day is getting later. It’s now five days later than in 2010, a week later than in 2002 and nearly five weeks later than in 1963 when Tax Freedom Day fell on April 24.

“Compared with five years ago, the average UK taxpayer now spends around a week longer every year just working for George Osborne,’’ said Mr Singer. “However, Tax Freedom Day is only based on tax receipts; it doesn’t take account of the Government’s budget deficit.

“According to the Adam Smith Institute, factoring that into the equation pushes the real cost-of-government day – when we have worked long enough to pay for both the government’s taxes and its borrowing – out to June 23.”

According to the Adam Smith Institute, where they have been calculating Tax Freedom Day since 1991, the more tax the government takes, the longer it takes for UK taxpayers to make their contribution.

However, Mr Singer said that our American cousins seem to be enjoying a somewhat milder fiscal climate:

“According to the US Tax Foundation, American taxpayers celebrated 2012 Tax Freedom Day on April 17, the 107th day of 2012 and five day later than in 2011.

“That means Americans worked around 42 fewer days for Uncle Sam than we did for George Osborne.

“Nevertheless, despite these tax reductions, Americans will still pay more in taxes in 2012 than they will spend on groceries, clothing and shelter combined.”