A different view: 'IR35 presents a wealth of opportunity'

“IR35 presents a wealth of opportunity. It’s a time for businesses to re-evaluate their current workforce and project delivery operating models to ensure they really deliver the best possible value for money.”

This is the opinion of Nigel Morris, employment tax director at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, an accounting firm. Mr Morris believes the legislation forces businesses to “reassess employee bases and business structures”.

Mr Morris does accept that a number of businesses are not ready for the roll-out of the legislation but “companies need to be robust in their preparations the move to IR35.”

However, Mr Morris said:

We’re finding many businesses still don’t know exactly how many off-payroll workers they have, and some haven’t yet taken steps to prepare. There’s also still a lack of confidence in determining employment status for contractors.

Following the resignation of Sajid Javid and the appointment of the new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, the pressure is already building for him to suspend IR35. These calls came from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE).

Both bodies feel that Mr Sunak should work and engage with businesses and find out the best possible way to implement the changes.

Also, on the 17/02/20 Ruth Stanier, director general of customer strategy and tax design at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), wrote an article exclusively for HRreview in order to give businesses and contractors as much information as possible before IR35’s implementation date of 06/04/20.

The off-payroll tax has caused a huge amount of controversy for different businesses and contractors. This has led to a review in to the legislation being opened by the Government. Following that, the House of Lords then opened a separate inquiry in to IR35.

The inquiry will look in to how the rules impacted the public sector since being implemented in 2000. Whether or not the impact of the legislation has been properly assessed, what HMRC should do to help businesses understand these new rules and the HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool and how it can be made more effective at its job.

Darius McQuaid

Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.