Off-payroll working rules for private sector postponed to April 2021

The government is postponing the reforms to the off-payroll working rules IR35 from April 2020 to the 6 April 2021. Steve Barclay the chief secretary to the Treasury made the announcement in the House of Commons on 17 March. He said this was not a cancellation but a deferral ‘in response to the ongoing spread of COVID-19 to help businesses and individuals’. He added that the government was ‘committed to reintroducing this policy to ensure people working like employees but through their own limited company pay broadly the same tax as those employed directly’.

Welcoming the delay Qdos chief executive officer Seb Maley said: ‘The government has seen sense and made the right call in these unique circumstances. Given the economic challenges that lie ahead of the UK now certainly would not have been the right time to roll out needless tax changes that endanger hundreds...