IR35 Soft Landing Ending – Industry Trends: Part 5

The change to IR35 has placed the onus on the client to assess the status of their workers.

This is not a one-time task and needs regular re-assessments and reviews to ensure you are taking Reasonable care:

• Businesses need to regularly re-assess workers to ensure ongoing compliance and that Reasonable Care has been met in the legislation
• The recommendation is that you should re-assess a sample of contractors every 3-6 months
• HMRC are clear that failure to re-assess when there has been a material change will not constitute reasonable care – any change to a project or working practices should result in a new review
• All new roles post April 2021 needs to have a review prior to the role being advertised – all roles should be clearly defined as ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ IR35
• Using an online tool for these re-assessments means you need to complete a whole new review – a professional advisor will have records of what has been assessed originally saving you time and money

Businesses need to ensure they have woven IR35 into their BAU processes and have a framework for ongoing compliance, including new roles and re-reviews.

HMRC have provided this advice and guidance on what constitutes Reasonable Care, via an Employment Status Manual.

For any business that is concerned with what they have read so far get in touch, as we would be happy to offer our expertise along with a selection of free IR35 reviews to test your process