The extension of the IR35 ‘off-payroll’ rules to the private sector scheduled for this April have been widely covered over recent weeks. There has been a lot of commentary and events around the potential impacts for employers, contractors and recruitment agencies. Individual attitudes from each of these three parties range from high panic that this will herald the end of the world for contracting to burying one’s head in the sand.
While more details remain to be seen following the HMRC consultation which concluded last week and at the budget due in March, we have been spending a lot of time making sure that we are neither panicking nor avoiding the issue – a position that has obviously helped us;
- We placed more contractors in January and early February than at any other time in our experience. Assignments have included some with corporates but predominantly with SMEs across a range of sectors and ownerships
- There has been a small increase in the number of fixed term contracts and PAYE pay arrangements, but there have also been some limited company contractor placements outside of the scope of IR35
Joe Ingham leads all of our interim and contract recruitment. He has spent a lot of time gaining advice from the tax and legal adviser community to ensure that our strength in this vital area of our market continues. So many of our clients have benefitted from a strong interim solution and so many of our candidates are excellent contractors who deliver an outstanding service.
We have partnered up with Shorts Chartered Accountants to ensure that all clients working with us will receive the very best advice and ensure that their Status Determination Statements are completed with the highest levels of care. This service can be provided seamlessly to our clients by Shorts as required. Stephen Allender is Senior Tax Manager at Shorts and has an extensive understanding of all of the latest guidance and advice around the subject of IR35
The changes in April will have an impact for all parties in the contractor cycle, but in the vast majority of cases, this impact can be managed with some adjustments. Our business is ready to do our bit to ensure that the wheels of the interim market will continue to turn!
