Oil and gas sector - IR35

[sludgesurfer]

I'm hearing (albeit anecdotally) that several operators are taking the blanket approach. BP, Shell and Taqa being 3. I'm hearing of contractors clubbing together in the Aberdeen operator offices and saying "outside or we will leave"....and then being told to pack their things.

The engineering contractors: Worley, Wood and Petrofac look to be assessing roles on an individual basis although I don't yet know of guys receiving an outside determination.

My own operator client will deliver individual determinations by the end of February, using "IR35 shield" assessment. No idea how this looks as they are assessing onshore staff first. I won't be staying on an "inside" determination - as good a reason as any to retire. I would however be tempted to challenge it given there is a decent project completion milestone payment on offer.

IR35 private sector reforms: BP contractors notified of incoming ban on PSCs

IR35 could be 'death knell' for one-man band offshore contractors - News for the Oil and Gas Sector

I'd be interested to hear any other experiences from the energy patch.

[Highland]

I'm hearing (albeit anecdotally) that several operators are taking the blanket approach. BP, Shell and Taqa being 3. I'm hearing of contractors clubbing together in the Aberdeen operator offices and saying "outside or we will leave"....and then being told to pack their things.

The engineering contractors: Worley, Wood and Petrofac look to be assessing roles on an individual basis although I don't yet know of guys receiving an outside determination.

My own operator client will deliver individual determinations by the end of February, using "IR35 shield" assessment. No idea how this looks as they are assessing onshore staff first. I won't be staying on an "inside" determination - as good a reason as any to retire. I would however be tempted to challenge it given there is a decent project completion milestone payment on offer.

IR35 private sector reforms: BP contractors notified of incoming ban on PSCs

IR35 could be 'death knell' for one-man band offshore contractors - News for the Oil and Gas Sector

I'd be interested to hear any other experiences from the energy patch.

Yes this appears about right from what I'm seeing and hearing from colleagues around Aberdeen. Although I haven't heard of the 'outside or we'll leave' club!

I know of people at Petrofac that have been officially assessed as outside so some companies are doing it properly. In general the engineering / service co's seem to have been more pro-active.

Operator wise - BP, Shell, Chrysaor seem to have applied a blanket umbrella / PAYE only. Hopefully yours has a more pragmatic approach!

[eazy]

Aberdeen O&G Sector

I have heard similar things :

PD&MS - Outside
Aker - Individual assessments, no determinations as yet
Premier Oil - Individual assessments - Contracts & Management positions inside, engineering role reviews ongoing
Petrofac - Individual assessments, mainly outside assessments
Wood group - Individual assessments, up to 80% outside
Worley - Individual assessments,Designers to Lead Engineer level outside, above that inside
SS7 - Individual assessments (180 out of 200 contractors found inside)
EnQuest - Individual assessments, changes to working practices, outside
Apache - Individual assessments, outside
BP, Shell, Total, Taqa, Nexen - PAYE only from April.
Fluor - Individual assessments
Repsol Sinopec - Staff / PAYE positions, few legacy contractors which they do not want to lose, and are still holding out
Perenco - No Contractors, PAYE only
Spirit Energy - Individual assessments

[sfr]

Yes this appears about right from what I'm seeing and hearing from colleagues around Aberdeen. Although I haven't heard of the 'outside or we'll leave' club!

I know of people at Petrofac that have been officially assessed as outside so some companies are doing it properly. In general the engineering / service co's seem to have been more pro-active.

Operator wise - BP, Shell, Chrysaor seem to have applied a blanket umbrella / PAYE only. Hopefully yours has a more pragmatic approach!

CNOOC (Nexen) are inside too allegedly.

The big EPCs (Wood et al.) are all waiting for someone else to blink. There are individual assessments, yes. And many at this point have been deemed outside, yes. But its all went to management review, and now down to the point of how much risk does the management want to take.
There is a risk that all these tools, IR35 shield, deem us outside (including CEST), but the risk to management is too great and we all get deemed inside anyway regardless in a blanket fashion.

[Coolshot]

I have heard similar things :

PD&MS - Outside
Aker - Individual assessments, no determinations as yet
Premier Oil - Individual assessments
Petrofac - Individual assessments, mainly outside assessments
Wood group - Individual assessments, up to 80% outside
Worley - Individual assessments, no determinations as yet
SS7 - Individual assessments (180 out of 200 contractors found inside)
EnQuest - Individual assessments, changes to working practices, outside
Apache - Individual assessments, outside
BP, Shell, Total, Taqa - PAYE only from April.

You can add Fluor to the list. All contractors completed a 42 question assessment by QDOS end of January, still waiting for an answer from Fluor.
I work with some Worley contractors who said some of their sds questions where answered for them by the client and they did not have an option to change.

[ckms]

I spent 6 months contracting for Shell. My contract was outside IR35 but there wasn't a single person in the entire building who knew what IR35 was. It was filled with permietractor tax Dodgers, chained to their desks for years! This is the very reason for the change in the law.

Me? I was eventually marched out the building for failing to operate as part of a team of full time staff. Even the contractors were against me for showing them up for what they were. All I wanted to do was honour the terms of my contract.

From that moment on I never looked back. It's these disguised employees that are making life hard for the real freelancers out there. You may well be one of them. If not I empathise with your plight

Sent from my SM-N960F using Contractor UK Forum mobile app

[sludgesurfer]

But its all went to management review, and now down to the point of how much risk does the management want to take.

This is the kicker. Particularly for offshore contractors, the unfettered substitution presents particular challenges and a risk which some companies will not want to take. I've subbed an offshore contract in the past and I'm confident that I could do it in this one, my contract says so, as does my client contact....but when the outside determination goes to the director for sign off....I'm not so sure.

I've seen the blank IR35 shield questionnaire, unpopulated it would give me an outside determination but as already pointed out....a lot of it is going to come down to what the client pre-populated answers say.

Also, I agree, this industry is poor for IR35 awareness/compliance. Permitractors are rife. When I've discussed the changes with some guys, several have replied "oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask my accountant about that"

[sludgesurfer]

I'm now hearing of Worley guys receiving outside determinations.

Some more experiences from the energy patch here:

Find fairer IR35 clients. OffPayroll.org.uk

[sfr]

The worleys guys got their Qdos determination certificates. Certificate numbers and all. Looks very good. Client name etc and answers to question. This will be in recompense for the fee they had to pay Worley to carry them out.

The question is, its just a Qdos certificate (stating outside). There hasnt been any formal communication from Worley saying 'business as usual'.
However i think it would take a brave man to say 'guys your all inside' after you'd received your outside determination........

[eek]

The worleys guys got their Qdos determination certificates. Certificate numbers and all. Looks very good. Client name etc and answers to question. This will be in recompense for the fee they had to pay Worley to carry them out.

The question is, its just a Qdos certificate (stating outside). There hasnt been any formal communication from Worley saying 'business as usual'.
However i think it would take a brave man to say 'guys your all inside' after you'd received your outside determination........

It would also be a brave company who sent a business as usual mail - business is not going to be as usual from April, things have changed.

And will change again next January as well.