Royal Mail’s parent company has demanded a ‘level playing field’ on tax with parcel delivery rivals after taking a major hit from Labour’s National Insurance hike.
Michael Snape, finance director at International Distribution Services (IDS), lashed out at competitors who did not have to pay the tax because, in many cases, their workers are not directly employed.
And he said the company was in early talks with the Government over the issue. It has previously warned that it will take a £120million hit from Rachel Reeves’ Budget tax raid.
IDS last year refused to rule out job cuts due to the Chancellor’s National Insurance hike.
However, Snape yesterday said it did not believe there would be a ‘direct association with job losses’.
But he considered the levies to be ‘an unfair tax on our business model versus our competitors’, adding: ‘We take pride in the fact that we employ people.
Our competitors operate in a very different way so we bear the brunt of that increase in National Insurance far more than they do.’
Snape said conversations with the Government on the matter ‘have started and are at very early stages’.
He added: ‘The point that we make, whether it’s in relation to National Insurance or just otherwise, is: there should be a level playing field.’
Snape said of Royal Mail’s 130,000 employees: ‘We give them a pension, we give them some security around work, we look after them – our business is a people-run business.
Our competitors is a very different approach which we don’t think is fair on a commercial level or also how perhaps you should run a business in the UK.
‘If there are any further taxes to come on businesses, we think they should be fair and proportionate and not target people such as ourselves who operate what we think is the best way of doing business.’
Snape did not name rivals, but DPD, Yodel and Evri treat many workers as self-employed rather than direct employees.
IDS published its first set of annual results since a £3.6billion takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky – known as the Czech Sphinx.
It revealed losses narrowed to £8million for the year to the end of March from £348million a year earlier.
