For me this is definitely where a lot of money has gone, not to mention the negative effect on my weight 
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I can honestly say, purely as a result of Covid, we have a lot of extra disposable income.
I’ve found I am more likely to make lunch while I am working from home than I was to sack-off putting up a packed lunch the night before and just buying something while at the office - so I have saved a bit of money on that, as well as the money I spent commuting.
Not noticed any increase in energy bills.
For those that haven’t bothered or don’t know about it:
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Sounds like a nice place to work
Sign me up! I have to admit, I’ve never worked for any organisation that gave me free beer at work. Nice if you can get it.
Do you find you’re working shorter days now you’re at home?
With those kind of perks, I imagine it kept you at work for longer?
I’d be obese with free snacks on tap.
I’m spending less on food. All too easy to buy a coffee on the way in to work, then something for lunch, and that’s £10 gone before you even notice. Whereas working from home, I’ll wander down to the deli/sandwich shop maybe once a week, and have home-made sandwiches/whatever the rest of the time.
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It’s not immature at all, VAT makes it impossible to run a business with the ability to keep it running for as long as possible on as least as possible. Compliance is expensive.
Also, I would be opening a software as a service business; to do business in an EU state as a UK incorporated company you need a VAT registration and to charge VAT at the rate of a foreign country, at 1 pound turnover or 100k.
It’s ridiculous. Taxes should be paid at UK flat rate on all customers or we should have no tax to pay on foreign customers, like any country outside the EU has.
Tl;dr VAT is a failure as the EU/UK have implemented it. Needs to be replaced with a UK specific VAT that only applies to sales made in the UK, foreign sales with no cause for taxation like an office abroad? No tax abroad!
I’m going to skip over your views on tax and suggest that you consider how much you want to start a business and acheive you goals.
I genuinely mean this in the nicest possible way but you can start a business or you can try and change the tax system, however finding ways around tax will just land you in trouble. The two things in this life that are unavoidable are taxes and death 
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Take a breath, @Recchan 
. No-one likes paying taxes, but….
… I struggle to see why any tax system should be aimed at achieving that 
.
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Working from home
Positives
saved money on fuel
Loads more time - 1 hour commute each way
Spend more time with the kids
Negatives
Stove on more so more logs & coal
Electricity increased
Kids interrupting whilst working
A big positive on the whole and better off by about £75 a month.
I don’t miss the motorways around Greater Manchester.
Not sure how to establish it any clearer but I think you guys are missing the point; we should be focused on achieving business goals and making Britain as prosperous as possible for the people within it, giving them the easiest time possible. Not worrying about HMRC audits.
I’m not saying we need to scrap VAT, I’m simply saying VAT should return to how it used to be, where it was charged to all EU customers at the rate of the country where the business is based (so we don’t have to work out 20+ countries of rates) especially considering the current system is flimsy enough to let people self identify where they’re from.
On top of that, now we have left the EU I don’t know why we would collect taxes for them? It’s wild.
If we do keep it how it is now, it needs to be made a several second process. Obligation to charge correct amounts should be given to the processing companies and then they should ringfence the tax portion so all you need to worry about is domestic corporate tax
I don’t think wanting to make things easier for people is such a bad ideal in life and I will continue my path regardless, it just means it will take me a little longer. As I would like to contribute to my homeland I will not be aiming to go offshore/avoid tax, for the avoidance of doubt. I’m no Dyson
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Your perspective on things is, as always, intriguing and forthright. 
May I suggest we bring this thread back on-topic and hear what folk think their lives are going to look like here on in?
Or start a thread on the UK tax system, perhaps?
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Sounds like good thread potential 
You bet 
- go for it…
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WFH
Positives… Everything
Negatives… Nothing
Case closed for me 
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I’ve only ever worked from home, so a lot of the Covid WFH discussion is old hat to me.
What’s causing all kinds of problems is the realignment of the global economy… Reliable work is not as reliable. Clients have crazy deadlines… Eugh. Work is just tougher as the overlapping crises unfold. There’s just sheer pain in businesses that were happily ticking along in 2019
Well, nearly 6 months on, have peoples ideas, goals, etc changed?
For me, things have changed quite drastically.
Although I work in an industry that has always had a quite high staff turnover (public transport) we are now seeing levels of staff shortages on a par with the lorry drivers.
This has added to the stress of actually doing the job due to having to work longer hours, getting abuse from the customers for missing services, etc.
I love my job and would be very sad to leave it, but if things carry on I will be seriously looking at a career change.