IR35 – the way forward

We are approaching the 25th anniversary of the announcement of the then-proposed ‘intermediaries’ legislation commonly referred to as IR35. These are the rules that broadly look at situations where an individual provides personal services to an end user (or client) but provides those services through another person an intermediary typically a limited company. The IR35 rules raise the question: would that individual had that individual contracted directly with the end user be treated as an employee of the end user? If so PAYE and National Insurance contributions will be payable on the fees paid by the end user as if there were an actual employment relationship.

The original controversies around IR35

While legislative proposals are often controversial at the time it is (at least in my experience) unusual for the controversies to continue long after enactment. Yet IR35 has undoubtedly...