Company Insurance requirements (IR35)

[malvolio]

Some feedback for you. I find them difficult to use due to the design. This forum is so much cleaner and easier to use. Perhaps a re-design would encourage more users. No problem with content.

Aaarrghhh!!! We just had one. Took a lot of effort from the IT team becuase the overwhelming majority wanted it to stay just like the old one.

Main reason was everyone liked the threaded mode for some of the longer debates, which just wouldn't work on the way this board is laid out - although we seem to manage, probably beciase wee're used to it. Had we gone with this style over there, I have no doubt people would have soon adapted though!

[swebb]

If you're using a PCG standard contract and have read the first timer guids and all the rest on their site, then I suggest IR35 is a distant dream...

Follow up question then - why aren't you asking these questions on their fora? The answers you've got from here are right, as it happens, but we're still trying to understand why people don't/won't use the PCG boards, especially for technical issues like these.

To be honest it never crossed my mind, I have used this forum a couple of times and only just joined the PCG so haven't used there forum yet. But now I come to think of it I probably should have !

Cheers

Steve

[Cheshire Cat]

quick question regarding PCG standard contracts: at what stage do you propose this contract to the agency (assuming you find a contract through an agency)? Is it when you have been offered the contract by the client? Do you then email the agency with a PCG standard contract, with all your bits filled in, and ask them to sign? Or do you wait until the agency send you THEIR contract for your signature and then reject it, proposing yours?
Has anyone had trouble from agents who want to use their own standard contracts?
Does using a PCG contract negate the need for an (expensive) contract review, as presumably the bases are all covered?

[malvolio]

Don't think theere's any hard and fast rule about it. Some people offer them immediately, others only when the agency contract is so bad as to be unusable. There are other complications, though, not least that a lot of agency contracts are aligned to their agreement with the end client (especially on PSL deals), so there is often some difficulty in not using the agency one. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try though.

As written the PCG contracts will all pass IR35 legally so shouldn't need vetting (and if you do get them vetted and they fail, be very suspicious...). Obviously, they need to reflect reality.

[KevinS]

IME, the bigger the agent, the less willing they are to negotiate.. Smaller agencies tend to be more flexible and if you propose to them that you would be far more comfortable using the PCG contract as it is known to be IR35 friendly, they might go for it..

Keep in mind that is not just YourCo's contract with the agent that will be looked at during an investigation, but the upper contract between the agency and the client as well and if there are serious discrepancies, the upper contract will take precedence (rightly or wrongly)..

[swebb]

In my case I was actually working using ParasolIT which was fine but decided eventually that I should go Ltd. When I looked at the egencies contract it was using the PCG template and had the PCG ref and logo on the bottom. They had been using this all along so I should have gone Ltd immediately .... doh