Contractors have been pleasantly surprised recently by a flurry of determinations that fell outside of IR35. This is promising for contractors everywhere since the rollout of IR35 is nearly here. Eleven end-clients have been identified in the last few days as having a fair determination and have been confirmed to be outside of IR35.
Included entities are Astra Zeneca, William Hill, Enterprise, IPG, Orsted, Brighter Consultancy, Magic Milestones, Equal Experts, MWH Treatment, Ashfield and the Cooperative group.
These logical and well-explained decisions give contractors hope that the future will not be so dire as they had imagined. There is no way to prevent HMRC from attempting to take a contractor to court to investigate a determination if HRMC sees fit, but the courts seem to have been inclined to support contractors who have correctly assigned their own status.
These decisions also support what contractors have been saying about the need to deal correctly with blanket bans, which are affecting the ability of many contractors to find and engage jobs during this fraught and challenging time. It now appears that end-users will likely not be able to force their contractors onto PAYE either, another major improvement in the overall picture of contractors.
Legal experts are pointing at these cases to show that careful investigation and individual determinations are the only right way to handle IR35 once the rollout has taken place. It remains to be seen what will happen with PSCs because they are still the focus of an attempt to remove them from the options that contractors can use to engage contracts.
Outside IR35 Determinations Improve Outlook
Contractors are still dealing with issues related to incorrect determinations and PSC issues, but the determinations that have been handed down do make the outlook much better for April. Contractors are still reporting issues with obtaining SDS for these changes and for the new contracts that they are engaging in, but hopefully, this will become comfortable for engagers before the rollout.
Blanket determinations are still an issue, but there has been more attention paid to this problem now that these cases have gone a different way than HMRC expected. There are many positives, but contractors should still be aware that they need to self-advocate and to press hard for SDS documents and other information that will be required of them if they are investigated by HMRC.
