Contracting News

Although still in the red, freelance tech hiring shows ‘improvements,’ finely balanced on next Wednesday’s Spring Statement 2025.

An off-payroll rules update by HMRC is far from the full story. But the subtext is clear – the reformed IR35 rules aren’t going anywhere.

Off-target. Opaque. Overly complicating an already complicated landscape. Spring Statement must scrap or shelve ‘deemed employer.’

Four umbrella regulation areas get opened up, next to two new points, and one very uncertain part with potentially ‘huge impact.’

Greg Smith MP: My hope is the former HMRC inspector makes huge adjustments to scrutinise a scandal that this government cynically wants him to avoid looking properly into at all.

Top 10 announcements chancellor Rachel Reeves must make three weeks from today to boost the flexible workforce – FCSA.

A new off-payroll working rules impact-assessment holds the HMRC line of not facing up to IR35’s damage.

Pursuing an income tax demand against a bipolar taxpayer with a court-confirmed suicide risk, who was discriminated against, isn’t HMRC’s best look.

A personalised overview of the pressing issue of P9 coding notices (includes decoding your tax code for meaning).

As HMRC rapidly blacklists scores more tax avoidance schemes, the focus shifts to whether FCSA should become keeper of a ‘naughty list.’

What April 2026’s requirement on agents to HMRC-register means if you're a limited company in the market for tax advice.

A ‘cog in the wheel’ who spun ‘legal alternatives to using insolvency practitioners’ to distressed IT firms is disqualified, after £7.6million in assets goes unaccounted for.

With the IR35 ball soon back in some contractors’ courts, blanketing should ease, but the compliance burden for many individual limited company workers will increase.

REC: No New Year let up in economic uncertainty, ahead of April tax rises, is staying the hands of business.

Unless you’re Michelle Appiah, an appeal of her employment tribunal victory makes much-needed sense.

We need contractors to answer 10 off-payroll working questions, to help us convince the chancellor it’s time for an IR35 fix – IPSE.

My belt and braces step-by-step is best if you’re a tardy contractor already due a £100 HMRC penalty.

At a time of tumbleweed, and goal-setting, consider switching to Energy to tap into a £24bn-and-growing industry.

By potentially overlooking the importance of control, the footballing legend let a couple get past him.

Criticisms that still dog Sir Amyas Morse’s work are already Ray McCann’s to squelch, as he begins a ‘skewed brief’ that makes a ‘sham’ of Rachel Reeves’ promise.

Premium Bonds can see ‘contracting contingency money’ go further than sitting in a savings account.

‘Bamboozled, frustrated and ready to give up’ IT contractors reminded that Christmas is partly behind a new low of four-and-a-half years.

A look by someone who’s sold up already at whether April 6th 2026 regulation is going to trigger umbrella mergers, acquisitions by recruitment agencies, or neither.

The FCSA warns the Treasury’s James Murray MP that without intervention on multiple fronts, the UK’s temporary labour supply chain could collapse.

The Stevenage-based umbrella is warning of a copycat, potentially preying on contractors, agencies, and its own reputation.

A holding of horses might be required for IT contractors seeking a fresh start, especially amid today’s less-than-stellar market.

Previewed and revealed: the ‘hot’ IT contractor skills of next year, their current rates, forecasted rates, and why they’ll be critical.

IR35, tax and umbrella company advisers are hoping the chancellor uses her second fiscal package to ‘steady the ship’ -- by rescinding April’s employer NIC changes.

The interesting (court) case of the would-be contractor unreasonably denied freelance work serves as a cautionary client tale for 2025.

In wake of Gary’s Lineker settlement, Bauer & Cottrell provides crucial Christmas reading for contractors wanting an HMRC-free new tax year.

Autumn Budget brought a glimmer of hope that ‘LTD’ will be back in business in 2025-26, if only because the taxman’s new tanks are parked on the lawn of everybody else.

The taxman pulls no punches in his latest MSC appearance, so potentially bob and weave, don’t just read.

The National Insurance ‘shock’ to employers is so ‘sharp’ that lockdown was the last time IT contractor demand was weaker -- REC.

While the crystal ball is as opaque as it gets, it’s clear that the contractor-friendly lender is meeting a need, at least psychologically.

Just as umbrella company regulation is doing, the taxman’s talk about his avoidance list appears to be taking the gloss off it.

Photo, headline and job title are key, to entice agents to click beyond their premium product showing you only in ‘snapshot.’

Far from the demise of brollies, new legislation from April 6th 2026 will see many operators thrive.

When the IT contractor who shows up for work isn’t the UK citizen/PSC director who landed the role.

Legislation will have the final word, but we can already say the speculation, misinterpretation, and mischaracterisation appear to have no bounds.

Contractors may be the sole beneficiaries of Labour’s umbrella company regulation plan (which won’t be consulted on).