More than a quarter of HR professionals believe the administrative cost of IR35 will be around £200,000 to £499,999.
This was revealed by Procorre, a management consultancy that found that 27 per cent hold the opinion that IR35 will be this costly.
It also found that 47 per cent of HR is having a “nightmare” in conducting the administrative tasks relating to IR35. As well as 50 per cent saying they have found it hard to focus on other tasks due to IR35.
Just over two-thirds (67 per cent) stated that the IR35 changes that will take place in April 2020 will make it harder to recruit the necessary skills for their company.
The majority (60 per cent) of businesses have received advice from accountants, lawyers and recruitment agencies, 32 per cent have not yet done so “exposing themselves to risk” as IR35 is soon approaching.
Anne O’Donnell, CEO of Procorre, said
It is undoubtedly a stressful time for HR professionals as the private sector off payroll regulations fast approach, however, preparation is key. If HR departments have taken reasonable steps and put processes in place to ensure they and their contractors are compliant and operating within the correct status they shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
There is no ‘silver bullet’. It’s a case of taking a pragmatic, sensible approach and being able to show you’ve taken due care in your assessment of contractors’ status. In fact, businesses that embrace the changes can use it as an opportunity to review and improve their processes. This in turn will make them more attractive to contractors who also want to ensure they are operating within the guidelines.
Procorre believes that as Brexit is bringing with it uncertainty, IR35 adds to this and makes it harder to predict what will happen in April 2020. However, 38 per cent think that the changes to legislation could be scrapped entirely.
Procorre surveyed over 500 UK HR professionals in order to gather these results.
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.
