IR35 – Provision of personal services via an intermediary.

 

The “IR35” legislation was introduced in 2000 to counter what HMRC saw as “disguised employment”, that is situations where workers receive payments from a client via an intermediary and their relationship with the client is such that, had they been paid directly by the client, they would have been employees of that client.

 

The idea was to prevent workers from setting up companies under the so called Friday to Monday scheme where a worker could leave a job for on a Friday and return the following Monday doing the same job for the same business, but as a contractor via their own limited company, which gave rise to significant tax and national insurance savings.

 

In order to keep your tax and National Insurance bills to a minimum it is important that contracts and actual working practices are such that IR35 does not apply.

 

We have been involved in IR35 cases since the inception of the legislation and have great experience in advising businesses that could potentially fall foul of the intermediaries legislation.