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IR35 news dominates the contracting market but at the end of the day the most important thing for a contractor and a hirer is to have the right contract terms in place to protect fees, expectations and the work delivery, writes Adrian Marlowe, MD of the recruitment law specialist Lawspeed.

Following the article posted by People Management on 3rd May “evidence of blanket IR35 assessments ‘deeply concerning’, industry warns” the contracting sector should be alive to the fact that HMRC may be seeking to achieve this outcome, says

If business contacts or friends start to receive emails from you which are obviously spam or phishing, then the chances are that your email has been hacked or that some form of virus or malicious software has found its way onto your computer and account.

As the extension of the IR35 public sector rules slowly unfolds, one option being considered is to switch contractors to engagement through umbrella companies where the new rules will apply.

As with the public authority rules, responsibility for determining the tax status of contractors is to switch from the contractor to the hirer. Tax liability passes to the ‘fee payer’, which, with three exceptions, is the business that contracts with the contractor.

Since the government announced in October 2018 that the IR35 public sector rules would be extended to the private sector, there has been a plethora of publications warning against potential issues.

Whenever engaging an individual it is always important to understand the rules and rights that apply. These are determined by the employment status of the individual, whether an employee, a worker, a contractor, self employed or via a company (e.g. a PSC or umbrella), or some other kind of casual operator.

Lawspeed is delighted to announce the launch of a new accreditation for umbrella companies and other service providers. To be known as SPA (service provider accreditation).

The contractor tax rules known as IR35 are set to change. In simple terms, agencies and hirers that have historically hired contractors without risk of tax liability will, from 5th April 2020, be liable if they get the IR35 rules wrong. It is therefore relevant to understand when the rules apply.

The recent report from the National Audit Office (NAO) concerning the impact of public sector IR35 rules on the BBC in 2017 should be taken seriously.

Until the onset of the public sector IR35 rules, there was little tax or employment risk of dealing with a standard company contractor so long as the obvious tax avoidance models were avoided.

The BBC has reported that it believes the IR35 public sector rules are to be extended to the private sector in the budget later this month. Anyone who has followed the path of this controversial tax proposal will not be taken by surprise.