Accountants for IR35 Contractors & Freelancers

Keeping your head down

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Recentlythere have been several articles on Freelancer sites asking questionswith regards to the IR35 status of their contract.

Incredulously,I stumbled across a comment whereby one person whose contract did fallwithin IR35 rules was advised by a certain agency that “it is still OKto work outside IR35 as long as you keep your head down” and theystated that “this is what a lot of contractors are doing”.

Most of us know HMRC’s stance on tax evasion.  The introduction of IR35 failed to close the net for them so further legislation was written, namely the MSC rules.  These guys are not going to back down.

Sincethe confusion with the MSC regulations and introduction this January ofthe “Debt Transfer Provision”; many providers to the contractingindustry such as agencies, accountants and advisors have had to makeamendments to the way in which they work with you, the Freelancer.

Wherein past years some of the more unscrupulous providers were more thanhappy to provide services such as ‘ready made outside IR35 contracts’,  andnegotiate on your behalf for IR35 friendly contracts that did notreflect the true situation, current operations paint a very differentpicture.

The situation of the tax man knocking on the door is now two-fold.

Previously it was you that would take the hit.  Now with the new rules they can seek to ‘hit on’ the providers too.

So what does all of this mean?

In a nutshell:

Ifyou are genuinely “in business on your own account” and are notdisguised as self-employed, it’s your responsibility to have controlover your business and make all decisions accordingly.

Thinkvery carefully about using a "complete service" for a fixed monthly feefrom your business advisor, it's your business to "manage", not theirs.

This is not to say that you cannot seek professional advice, HMRC do not expect you to be an expert in all fields.  Justensure that you seek advice that is specific to you personally, ensurethat your chosen advisor is reputable, is aware of the full facts andthat you are honest with them.