IR35 consultation response - April 2020

We believe the proposal outlined in the consultation document will be deeply damaging, not just to ‘Personal Service Companies’ (PSC’S) and the agencies in the supply chain, but to their private sector clients and the economy as a whole. 

We set out our concerns in some detail when responding to last summer’s consultation and so will try to avoid repeating those arguments in this response, however, it is worth noting that we still feel very strongly that this policy will: 

• Heap significant cost onto businesses
• Restrict the private sector’s access to the specialist skills it needs
• Reduce flexibility in the supply of those specialist skills
• Further complicate employment status
• Give rise to legal challenges, particularly with regard to employment rights and status appeals
• Swamp UK businesses in red tape
• Damage UK productivity
• Result in multi-national businesses shifting projects off-shore
• Encourage further use of non-compliant umbrella arrangements and tax evasion schemes

Our central recommendation is that the proposal should be abandoned. We set out the reasons for this in our response to last summer’s consultation. Unfortunately, the government has decided to push ahead with the policy and so we make further recommendations in the paper.