Moving the responsibility for determining status on IR35

When ITEPA 2003 Pt 2 ch 10 was introduced by FA 2017 Sch 1 a novel controversy was unleashed into the contractor marketplace: the idea that one’s tax affairs would be determined by someone else. Not by consultation with one’s accountant or through negotiation with (or even determination by) HMRC but by a third party with whom one’s only relationship is that of supplying them with services. Consternation in the contractor marketplace is understandable. That consternation I am sure is compounded by the complexity of making a status determination.

Until recently HMRC had managed to win very few IR35 cases at tribunal and it has been alleged by some that it does not understand its own legislation. With that in mind has the department achieved the stated aim of moving the decision-making process ...