Revised CEST tool launched

HMRC has updated its check employment status for tax (CEST) tool and guidance including the addition of new chapter ESM11000 to the Employment Status Manual. Workers engagers or agencies can use the CEST tool to check whether the intermediaries legislation (IR35) applies to a particular engagement in the private or public sector.

Noting that this is the first official update to the tool since it was launched in March 2017 Susan Ball employer solutions tax partner at RSM said: ‘It is understood that around 30 questions have been updated or included and that several industry bodies and reportedly more than 300 stakeholders were asked to use the new version and feed in comments. Until now CEST produced an answer in only 85% of cases.

'The new tool has also been rigorously tested against case law and settled cases by officials and external experts....