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Ok, anyone doing all that is plainly gaming the system and is acting illegally

Yes, and no. Yes they are gaming the system, but no it isn't illegal. They probably won't ever be audited on it, and were they to be so, provided they never write down "I'm employing the Doris because it'll reduce my tax liability" then they'll sail on through. What the spouse does and what the contractor claims they do are often (almost always) miles apart.

If someone is claiming mileage for miles they didn't travel for work purposes, they are breaking the law.

But since they only have to provide minimal receipts and no other evidence they won't be caught. Besides, some do legitimately do the mileage, its just that as an FTE they can't claim it back, despite doing the same journey for the same reason to the same place.

If someone is purchasing it equipment which is not solely for work purposes (with incidental personal use), they are breaking the law.

But since a contractor defines what their role it anything they do online is "work purposes".

If someone is paying their wife, when their wife is not doing and work, or paying an amount which is more than the market rate for what they are doing, they are breaking the law.

That's the wheeze though isn't it. The things they do are being done, but many would be done anyway - my Mrs for instance often picks up stationary while out, its just that I don't get to pay her to do so out of my pre-tax earnings.

If someone is billing their company for utility bills which are not for business use, they are breaking the law.

Again, because the contractor decides what is business use, then its all business use. I could legitimately define anything as research - even reading El Reg becomes a "business activity" for keeping up with wider industry information.

A large proportion of what you point out there is tax fraud.

And yet none of it is.

If people are committing fraud, investigate them and charge them for it, don't penalise those of us who are operating within the law!

You're using the law as a shield here when specifically they are changing the law because what contractors are doing amounts to abuse of it.

I engage in industrial levels of legal sophistry every day as part of my work. Truly you would be horrified. That you prefer not to see that contractors are so engaged and amount to the work equivalent of Amazon or Starbucks is illuminating. Like I said, nobody does cognitive dissonance like the left....