IR35 Petition
Back in June 2016 we published an article ‘Crisis for public sector Contractors’ detailing the now active changes around the assessment of contract workers in the public sector, more broadly recognised as IR35 rules.
These changes would impact contractors engaged with any public sector department, over 500 bodies, including:
- National Health Service (NHS)
- Bank of England
- Local Councils
- Ministry of Defence
- BBC
Over the proceeding months we noticed a very large volume of web traffic across this article, more than 30,000 views in total, which we assumed was simply driven by the concerns around these fundamental changes and the high number of people it would impact.
When we performed further analysis we identified the traffic was originating mainly via a link on an online government petition titled: “Scrap IR35 legislation reform proposals for public sector off-payroll workers”.
This petition ran until 28th April 2017 and achieved over 37,000 signatures, as a result the government provided a written response, albeit simply re stating their desire to collect employment taxes from non employed contractors.
The response also referred to the much hyped online tool which will become the central decision making engine in deciding if your contract is one of provision of services or deemed employment. You can find more information information on this in our article IR35 Tool tackles disguised employment.
If you are a contractor in the public sector, or in the private sector, it is essential you understand how these rules will impact you now and in the future.
If you do not have the correct advice you will be exposed to potential recovery claims of PAYE and NIC assessed on your total turnover.
Contact us today for a free consultation and find out how we can help you mitigate these risks.
