as someone who has started a small company I can hand on heart say that you cannot be a greedy manipulator in fact you shoulder a lot of responsibility and risk you do not take on as an employee. If you work for a big company you get the pension, security and a monthly salary tax deducted. Running your own business you dont get the safety net, take a LOT of risk and for that you are "hopefully" rewarded.
Bear in mind that most companies fold in their early years.
I think capitalism is not perfect but we have yet to think of a more efficient way to allocate capital to good ideas and hard work. Of course I am against entrenched management in big companies paying themselves millions while they destroy shareholder value. But that is what independent directors and outside auditors are there to protect against.........
The reason we do that is because the majority of our work is "business to busniess" and overseas (who either don't pay or claim back the vat) Pip. It's probably something we should get out of the habit of :duh:
makes sense B2B as the buyer is not at the end of the supply chain (ie the consumer) so will not pay VAT. In the US all prices tend to be quoted ex-VAT (sales tax) even at the supermarket. I guess its down to tradition / local use