Out of contractor hands

[Paralytic]

HMRC - These xx contractors are inside?
Client - We haven't made a determination.
HMRC - Er, ok, will you
Client - No
HMRC - Er, ok

FTFY.

I fully expect HMRC to only target clients who have determined contractors outside post April 2021, except in cases where individual contractors are looked at for other/additional specific reasons.

[eek]

We'll see. Let's come back to this in a year.

A year? - It will only be in February 2023 that we will know who is being investigated for work this year.

[Paralytic]

A year? - It will only be in February 2023 that we will know who is being investigated for work this year.

True - have updated my response.

[LondonManc]

FTFY.

I fully expect HMRC to only target clients who have determined contractors outside post April 2021, except in cases where individual contractors are looked at for other/additional specific reasons.

How will they know how to engage a contractor and what to pay without having made a determination?

[LondonManc]

Absolutely but the mentality we've seen of being one in millions so it won't be me will have gone. HMRC contact a client to look at their overall working practices and get every contractor in one go. GSK v2.0 but with teeth?

Up to contractors to build the outside case then. Get a substitute used, turn work down, etc.

Or be a bum on a seat and take your medicine.

[Paralytic]

How will they know how to engage a contractor and what to pay without having made a determination?

They simply say they won't engage with PSCs - as many companies did prior to April 2020. No determination needed. They then just ask the agency to provide them with what they need within that constraint.

[northernladuk]

They simply say they won't engage with PSCs - as many companies did prior to April 2020. No determination needed. They then just ask the agency to provide them with what they need within that constraint.

You sure you've got that right this time?

[Paralytic]

You sure you've got that right this time?

I've no idea what you're on about.

[LondonManc]

They simply say they won't engage with PSCs - as many companies did prior to April 2020. No determination needed. They then just ask the agency to provide them with what they need within that constraint.

Well maybe. There are other options - outside and we can use a contractor or very well paid FTC. Inside, umbrella route.

[LondonManc]

Yep, there's nothing surprising here - this was the motivation for the reform. Remember that the 2021 version of IR35 is closer to the intended version in 2000, before lobbying killed it. Policing at the level of individual contractors was always a stupid idea when you have clients that have N contractors, many of whom are operating roughly the same working practices, and the client is much less likely to disappear than a PSC and more likely to have risk-averse legal and compliance.

Thinking about it, the client will have better lawyers to defend a claim from HMRC as well.