Big Chill bought by Festival Republic

[eFestivals]

I can assure from personal experience that that is not true!

fair enough, tho private Eye reported not too long ago that was the case.

The reduction (is there really one?) is fully justified now self-assessment is here - their workload must have been massively reduced now the work has been transferred from them to individuals and/or accountants.

Yes, there's been a massive cut in Revenue staff in the last five years or so.

You say that self-assessment is a reason for them not being needed, but it's the opposite that's true. With so many more people outside of the PAYE system than was the case in the past, and with many more people nowadays having income from things outside of their employment, there's a need for more checking and not less. Or does the Revenue believe that all these forms are filled in honestly? :angry:

The number of years for an average chance of a Revenue audit has increased massively - at the same time as the amount of tax fraud that's believed to happen has also increased. It doesn't need an accountant to know what's going on there.

The rich? The vast majority of business failures are small businesses - many of whom lose everything when their business fails - home, pension, their tools, even the car. Ok, those who can afford a good lawyer/accountant can sometimes get away with murder, but Joe Bloggs faces a bleak future - bottom of the Council Housing List ('intentionally homeless'), no state pension, no benefits claims, etc etc. It's important to remember that most business people are not in the position of the likes of the bastard Towers and his chums were in when they fleeced Rover - most are just ordinary people who had a stab at living their dream.

Ahh, sorry - I wasn't talking about business failures there, just the overall scenario. Before the recession, and aside from beneficial tax changes, the amount collected in taxes from the richest in society in a proportional basis against their earnings has been falling - meaning that the poorer people in society are paying more to make up the shortfall.

[dandreamweva]

Quote from a BBC news article from 2008....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7499708.stm

Melvin Benn also believes there will be a shake-out in the industry.

"I think there'll be a continued diversity of more small festivals, but I think the number of people running them will be less.

"I think the big promoters will eventually buy up a number of smaller ones, no different to normal high street businesses in that sense."

[5co77ie]

Katrina has today resigned:

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/10/101105b.shtml