24-hour protest against IR35 proposed

A national day of action against IR35 is being proposed by a campaigner.

Contractor Mike Gibson, of Changeir35.com, believes a 24-hour event should be used to protest against the prospect of the April 2017 reforms being extended to the private sector.

“[At this early] planning stage”, he said “[the event involves] a march to the Houses of Parliament, a few speeches and a petition [delivered]….to 10 Downing Street.”

“The intent is to show the volume of support for the campaigns and send a clear message that IR35 will be a key issue at the next election.”

Gibson will also build and upload a directory of MPs’ responses to IR35 objection letters, to record their stance on the rule and create a log of the arguments for and against the extension.

But another IR35 critic, Graham Fisher, thinks that despite a consultation on the extension being overdue (according to his forecasts), officials have likely already decided that it will go ahead.

“Our general view is that HM Treasury and HMRC are not accepting any evidence pointing to the public sector changes being anything other than a resounding success.

“If HMRC continues on their current course we should expect the same off-payroll changes to be introduced into the private sector in April 2019”.

Fisher, who is managing director of accountants Orange Genie added: “In the unlikely event that they recognise the failure of the public sector implementation, any changes might be delayed to 2020.”