Do you think you will be investigated ?

[Bumfluff]

Just wondered how paranoid people are about being IR35 investigated ?

Even though Im pretty much outside of IR35, I'm still worry about it, sometimes I dont think about it other times it keeps me up at night thinking could I lose everything... would they make me declare myself bankrupt resulting in never being able to work in my sector again. Some people I know dont break a sweat even though there still doing loans and trust etc.

[Diver]

Most of us will never be investigated, HMRC have probably lost the disks with all our details on.

[Gonzo]

Just wondered how paranoid people are about being IR35 investigated ?

Even though Im pretty much outside of IR35, I'm still worry about it, sometimes I dont think about it other times it keeps me up at night thinking could I lose everything... would they make me declare myself bankrupt resulting in never being able to work in my sector again. Some people I know dont break a sweat even though there still doing loans and trust etc.

I think that I read somewhere that the PCG office get two people per week needing to use their insurance.

Since they have 14000 members I work that out as a 1% chance of getting investigated.

I am sure that my contracts have all been OK for IR35 purposes and I am in the PCG, so I don't worry about it.

However, I don't own a house so I have nothing to lose, so I have few worries full stop.

[BrilloPad]

I worry about it a bit - but I am using the IOM!

Where is the andyw option? is that the Liz Hurley thing?

[threaded]

In Denmark they investigate you every other year.

[VectraMan]

What worries me is that I'll get investigated 5 years down the line when I've forgotten all about what I was doing on this contract.

[shoes]

How much can they do in an investigation on a contract that was several years ago? The team you worked with have probably moved on, leaving them with nothing but the paperwork. I can't see them tracking down your project manager from 5 years ago to ask them about a contractor they won't remember. In this case does it matter if the contract doesn't match the actual situation at the client?

[threaded]

Then they'll just make some sh1t up, they use a lovely word for it: 'deem'.

[Chantho]

Just wondered how paranoid people are about being IR35 investigated ?

Even though Im pretty much outside of IR35, I'm still worry about it, sometimes I dont think about it other times it keeps me up at night thinking could I lose everything... would they make me declare myself bankrupt resulting in never being able to work in my sector again. Some people I know dont break a sweat even though there still doing loans and trust etc.

My company was investigated in 2003. Fortunately I had taken out insurance for such an eventuality via the PCG. In 2006 the revenue agreed that there was no IR35 liability.
In the 3 years of the investigation, there was no mention by the revenue of contracts, just attempts by them to get various HR drones from one particular client to agree that I was no different from their company's employees.

[shoes]

I think that I read somewhere that the PCG office get two people per week needing to use their insurance.

Since they have 14000 members I work that out as a 1% chance of getting investigated.

Does anyone have actual data on the chances of being investigated? What is the time limit beyond which they are unable to do an investigation?

If two are investigated per week out of a sample set of 14000 your 1% presumably comes from 2*52/14000 = a 0.7% chance over a year. If the limit is say 10 years then that's a 7% chance?

Are their small public sector commie brains capable of reasoning that it makes more sense to investigate a target with a larger potential liability? Do your chances increase/decrease according to their potential take from an investigation?

Does anyone know?