Off-payroll’s intended death will reawaken a stronger IR35

On 23 September 2022 chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng signalled his government’s intention to repeal the off-payroll working IR35 reforms (ITEPA 2003 Ch 10) from April 2023. The consequence would mean reverting to the intermediaries legislation (ITEPA 2003 Ch 8) to continue governing the sea of ‘deemed employment’ for contractors working through their own limited companies.

While all of us tax lookouts were busy below deck musing over which tax rates would be changed and whether prime minister Liz Truss’s promise of an IR35 review would materialise the chancellor having assessed the urgency of fixing the off-payroll issue promptly circumvented the usual government’s approach of consultation before significant changes and instead drove the policy into a giant ‘repeal-berg’.

Who spotted the ‘repeal-berg’?

The only person who saw this coming was the chancellor because the usual leaks from the tax ship never hit the media...