Urgent IR35 update: Please contact your MP today and join our latest webinar this Thursday
- 30 Jun 2020
The IR35 reforms reach Report Stage tomorrow in the House of Commons. We want you to contact your MP, today, and ask them to support the amendments that would stop or delay them. The one that is most likely to get the support needed is amendment 20 which seeks to delay the rules for two years.
The legislation, included as part of the Finance Bill, would change the way IR35 works in the private sector. If it passes, it would mean that your client will have to determine your IR35 status and, if they decide IR35 applies, you will be taxed at source, probably by a payroll company, and you will very likely have to pay the Employers’ National Insurance Contributions on top. This change would take effect from April 2021.
How the IR35 changes would affect you
Because IR35 is so complex, there is a very good chance your client will get the determination wrong. And because they will be held liable for any tax that wasn’t deducted as a result of an ‘outside IR35’ determination, there is a big incentive for them to apply IR35, even when there is a high probability it doesn’t apply.
IPSE has campaigned against IR35 for over 20 years and we have made countless arguments for why it’s bad news - bad news for contractors, bad news for businesses that want to work with contractors, bad news for the economy as a whole.
Amendment 20
But there’s no time to go over these arguments again now. What’s important now is that there is an amendment (in fact there are a few) that could ameliorate the situation. Amendment 20, tabled by David Davis MP, seeks to delay the roll out of these rules by two years. This is the one that has the best chance of cross-party support.
Due to the big Conservative majority we are really up against it. We need all the opposition parties and a good chunk of Tory rebels to back it. Please don’t delay. Contact your MP by email, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or whatever means available to you and ask them to support amendment 20. If you don’t know who your MP is, or how to contact them, you can find out here.
The shorter the message the better. Something like ‘As my MP please support amendment 20 in the Finance Bill tomorrow. The IR35 changes will hit my business at a time when I’m already struggling due to Covid’ will work.
Webinar with ForgottenLtd – Thursday 2 July @ 12.30
If you are a director of your own limited company the IR35 rules are a further kick in the teeth. Company directors haven’t received anything like the same level of support as other parts of the labour market during the Coronavirus. We will be discussing this, along with an update on IR35, in our webinar on Thursday at 12.30. We will be joined by Gina Broadhurst from ForgottenLtd to discuss what support is out there, and most notably, what support isn’t.
Register for the webinar
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