IR35 - Guilty as charged! - Updated May 2016 - NOT GUILTY!

[quackhandle]

Interesting thread, glad of the outcome for the OP.

In 14 years contracting I've not met a contractor who had been investigated or going through process. Met plenty who would be f**ked up they do though.

If the OP can get those questions up prob worth making this a sticky thread.

qh

[northernladuk]

Seems like a lot of effort on their part. They would be better off chasing the low(er) hanging fruit by pursuing those on long, current engagements. That's where I'd put my efforts but then this is HMRC we're talking about.

Yeah and they probably do hence me saying this is a hypothetical situation.

[frodo]

They get hold of your old client and grill them. If they've gone then happy days. Your worst nightmare is them getting hold of someone that vaguely knew you and attempts to answer all the questions which are nowhere near the truth. 'Oh yeah that guy, we treated him like an employee I guess'
You'd hope at that point though your defence steps in and points this out and cuts them off quick so they've no choice to drop the case.

That said if you are genuinely out and enough boxes are ticked they won't pursue anyway so a bit hypothetical I think.

Seems like a lot of effort on their part. They would be better off chasing the low(er) hanging fruit by pursuing those on long, current engagements. That's where I'd put my efforts but then this is HMRC we're talking about.

[northernladuk]

They get hold of your old client and grill them. If they've gone then happy days. Your worst nightmare is them getting hold of someone that vaguely knew you and attempts to answer all the questions which are nowhere near the truth. 'Oh yeah that guy, we treated him like an employee I guess'
You'd hope at that point though your defence steps in and points this out and cuts them off quick so they've no choice to drop the case.

That said if you are genuinely out and enough boxes are ticked they won't pursue anyway so a bit hypothetical I think.

[frodo]

Checking working practices

Out of interest, if you are a contractor that genuinely falls outside of IR35 and your contract(s) tick all the right boxes, how would HMRC then go about investigating your working practices from an engagement from say 3 years ago if the project you were working on has been delivered and all people associated with the project and therefore able to confirm your working practises have since moved on?

[Ketto]

How many years were they investigating to come up with a possible £100k liability?

[theroyale]

Finding other contractors to investigate

A question for the OP (munchers), apologies I couldn't find your original post on this to quote here:

You had mentioned somewhere in your thread that HMRE had/may have used the investigation into your contract at Client X to then "drill down" to find other contractors at the same client to investigate. Did this happen? (makes logical sense that they would!). Any info of how it went for the other guys?

[Old Greg]

Really? I thought you remember income tax being introduced?

Her memory is not so good nowadays.

[sociopath]

When op posts questions raised would it be worth putting as a sticky along with any guidance for future reference to anyone else that finds themselves in that situation

[northernladuk]

Some of us aren't as old as you think!

Really? I thought you remember income tax being introduced?