Readers’ forum: Change confusion

The forthcoming changes to IR35 are causing me some concern. One of my clients A Limited makes payment to self-employed subcontractors who are within the scope of the construction industry scheme. A Limited provides ground-working services on contracts on a site-by-site basis and its client is a major national housebuilder which is obviously a large company.

Looking at the guidance published on the HMRC website I am worried as to whether my client who contracts directly with the major housebuilder to provide construction services on a number of their sites will in effect become the fee-payer as explained in the department’s draft guidance.

The reason for saying this is that under the heading ‘Check if you’re the fee-payer’ at the second paragraph it states: ‘To be a fee-payer you must be...