Prosperity4 scaremongery emails

[Jog On]

Just got an email from prosperity4 saying this:

It's very, very important not to make any assumptions about your status. That's because it doesn't matter what your contract says - what matters is what actually happens in practice. So, a small change in the way you work from day-to-day can easily slip your status from being a self-employed contractor to an employee. And that can happen more than once in the middle of a single contract!

Is this true? They use the words 'personal service company' a lot to refer to Ltd companies throughout the email as well.

I read the PCG guide to IR35 which states differently and that if the contract is worded properly it's much better...

I know P4 are just pimping their umbrella service with this email but if they're doing so with false information (it doesn't matter what your contract says) shouldn't they be called to account?

[Ardesco]

Yes the working conditions are important and if Hector can proove that your working conditions are caught by IR35 even though your contract is not they can then get you for IR35.

The chances of this happening are somewhere between slim and none however so I wouldn't worry about it too much. IMHO if you have a fully compliant contract they are more likely to move on and find somebody who has a contract that looks like it is caught by IR35 because they have a much greater chance of winning the case in court, although their chances of winning the case are still somewhere between slim to none.

HTH