IR35 in the Private Sector is not a done deal

Many of us have been impacted by the IR35 reforms (such as they are reforms!) even before they come into force across the private sector.

Many would have been please to see the Lord’s committee (summarised here https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/ir35-house-of-lords-committee-report/) that expanded upon the problems with how the rules were being implemented and how contractors were now being classed as employees for tax reasons but with less rights than an employee would normally enjoy.

Given the language used in the full transcripts available and that there remains a chance to have this rethought I haveĀ  launched two petitions available;

Government petition https://lnkd.in/gM7Vt6C

More detailed in the Change.org petition as the government version restricts the space available: http://chng.it/rktRFqXpHY

As a summary of the arguments made in the petitions;

  • Unlike the public sector the private sector has no legislation to establish open tendering processes that tend to exclude SME’s
  • This means it unfairly favors large firms over SME’s
  • The legislation creates risk to hiring businesses who have chosen to respond with blanket rules and not to apply individual risk based decisions and this has restricted the market for genuine SME businesses
  • The legislation makes no attempt to recognise and protect genuine SME businesses who carry genuine risk of down time

The government petition is checked regularly as it hits different milestones for signatures so may be under review when you access.

I encourage everyone to sign both petitions as a way of showing the views of the practitioner community.

Paul Delew