I'll add a few thoughts.
What you want is a SERVICE.
You care little for who delivers it so long as you get the SERVICE you want and its results in achieving the objective, presumably being delivery of a project.
You are prepared to pay for the SERVICE based on perhaps milestones which are not based on hours spent, but rather waypoints achieved.
If you find a SERVICE company to do this, prima facie this is outside IR35. You get an invoice from the SERVICE provider and pay it (with VAT) and the service provider recognises that as income.
You are then however told/advised/recommended by the agent you have engaged to find and facilitate that service that the work will be provided by a single individual working via their own company. No other individuals will be involved, just this one person. That one person may have the right to provide a substitute but in reality is probably not going to.
Suddenly you are not buying a service but instead you are hiring in a PERSONAL PERFORMANCE.
Because said person has an intermediary - his/her PSC - you are within the tax rules brought into existence via IR35.
(Incidentally, IR = Inland Revenue and 35 was the number of the press release of the budget that year).
The intermediaries rules in Chapter 10 ITEPA 2003 lay out the fact that where the individual performing the PERSONAL service does so in a manner that would define them as an employee, absent the intermediary (PSC) and the contract signed, then they are taxed as an employee. This was due from the PSC but post April next is due from the fee payer, who may be you (end client) or the agency.
In some instances the use of the agency may bring into account the Agency Workers Regulations making them liable. Most agencies can avoid these.
Where does the line between a service and a PERSONAL service lie?
It depends on the facts.
What you want is a SERVICE.
You care little for who delivers it so long as you get the SERVICE you want and its results in achieving the objective, presumably being delivery of a project.
You are prepared to pay for the SERVICE based on perhaps milestones which are not based on hours spent, but rather waypoints achieved.
If you find a SERVICE company to do this, prima facie this is outside IR35. You get an invoice from the SERVICE provider and pay it (with VAT) and the service provider recognises that as income.
You are then however told/advised/recommended by the agent you have engaged to find and facilitate that service that the work will be provided by a single individual working via their own company. No other individuals will be involved, just this one person. That one person may have the right to provide a substitute but in reality is probably not going to.
Suddenly you are not buying a service but instead you are hiring in a PERSONAL PERFORMANCE.
Because said person has an intermediary - his/her PSC - you are within the tax rules brought into existence via IR35.
(Incidentally, IR = Inland Revenue and 35 was the number of the press release of the budget that year).
The intermediaries rules in Chapter 10 ITEPA 2003 lay out the fact that where the individual performing the PERSONAL service does so in a manner that would define them as an employee, absent the intermediary (PSC) and the contract signed, then they are taxed as an employee. This was due from the PSC but post April next is due from the fee payer, who may be you (end client) or the agency.
In some instances the use of the agency may bring into account the Agency Workers Regulations making them liable. Most agencies can avoid these.
Where does the line between a service and a PERSONAL service lie?
It depends on the facts.
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