Updating Contract for IR35 reasons

[Limited]

Hi

My company subcontracts for a number of consultancies. For one of these I have quite an old contract / t&cs agreed.

As I've always considered these arrangements to be quite a long way outside IR35 I've only recently started looking at the contract again over this issue. I think there are ways to improve it as there was no expressly worded substitution clause in the original, and the PCG contracts just seem clearer.

The consultancy in question is quite happy to change terms of the contract to what I'm happy with.

Question is, if all I'm doing is changing it for IR35 reasons then surely this is quite bad and will highlight problems with the previous contract.

Is that right? Am I better just leaving it alone, because the reality of the assignments are that they are outside ir35. Or will I not even get to discuss the reality if the contract itself doesn't pass?

thanks for any help

[Gonzo]

Question is, if all I'm doing is changing it for IR35 reasons then surely this is quite bad and will highlight problems with the previous contract.

Why would you tell them that?

[malvolio]

As a general principle, you should not let the taxation tail wag the business dog. If the contract reflects reality and the reality is that you are clearly and defensibly outside IR35, why change anything?

[Limited]

I was just thinking that if you compare the two contracts they would look fairly similar but obvious that one has been written with IR35 in mind. I don't know if this would start alarm bells ringing in the event of an investigation

eg The old one talks giving the client notification of holidays rather than just giving reasonable notice of when services will not be provided and there is no express provision for substitution although I guess that could be implied. Tbh when we agreed it the consultancy was just interested in non-compete clauses and I was mainly looking at the risk / liability aspects.

A few things in the orginal contract don't really follow how we have been working so I guess a new contract would clarify things.

[Bluebird]

you can't change a contract to make it "look" like your outside IR35 - don't forget the tests the IR apply are about what you actually do and how you operate NOT what it says in your contract,


If your current role is INSIDE IR35, then you need to change the role NOT the contract.