The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s delivery of this year’s Autumn statement encompassed a few burdening items, likely to cause ripples of discontent amongst a few communities.
Not least of these aforementioned will be the contracting community.
The statement detailed the Government’s intentions concerning the abolishment of those operating under disguised employment statuses.
The statement made HMRC’s intentions to execute more intense investigations concerning employment status overtly apparent.
Tax avoidance measures are to be raised over £9 billion in the duration of the next 5 years. Although recent PSC sessions have accentuated an average amount of 250 IR35 cases carried out annually, this recent statement by the Tory party should alarm and contradict existing misconceptions concerning a ‘lacklustre crackdown’ for IR35.
The legislation’s introduction in 2000 wasn’t exactly greeted with an array of open arms. Instead, it provoked contractors to feel uneasy and potentially doubt their legitimate practices.
IR35 was fundamentally brought in to tackle the disguised employee, in respect of an employee of a company registering their own domain name, labelling themselves a Limited Company, and returning to the exact same role at the exact same location, only getting taxed much less and taking home more.
However, HMRC are now issuing assurances to genuine contractors that they are not the target of their new anti-false self-employment measures referenced in the statement.
HMRC guaranteed that genuine contractors had nothing to worry about, with a spokesperson from the customs stating, ““We wanted to clarify that the measures are targeting mass-marketed schemes, where workers can be moved en-masse into self-employment, even though they should be employed.
“Often the workers are low-paid and unaware that they are being engaged on a self-employed basis until they try to claim employment rights. The measure is designed to stop this from happening.”
