Off-payroll working exemption for small businesses

The introduction of the new off-payroll working rules for the private sector has been delayed by 12 months until April 2021 – a sensible move given the uncertain times we live in.

As a result of the Covid-19 crisis many businesses are likely to be smaller by April 2021 than they were at the start of 2020. The off-payroll rules do contain an exemption for small businesses but it should not be assumed that those that shrink in this way will be exempt come April 2021. Instead because of how the exemption operates businesses could continue to fall within the rules for at least a couple of years.

What do we mean by small?

Before we get into the details there are a couple of important points to note about the exemption for small businesses.

First it only takes into...