I'm under IR 35 investigation.

[centurian]

In my private work it is all single pieces of assessment which have a fixes fee of say £1700 to £2000. Each one takes up to eight weeks to complete and can take up to fifty hours to complete.

Genuine fixed price work is a huge pointer to being outside IR35, so if this is the case, your chances of winning are very good.

However, it may take a lot of pain and hassle from HMRC before they finally concede that point. Because IR35 is by it's very nature subjective, even if you know you are slam dunk outside IR35, you still have to be prepared to prove that to HMRC, which can still require some effort.

[Martley]

Although I am a social worker I am not an ISW and others on here are far more expert on IR35. The only things I would say are 1) I wouldnt try to argue that you should be outside IR35 because otherwise the system would collapse, supply and demand etc, it is irrelevant and will annoy them as special pleading and 2) make sure they (or your representatives) are aware that in SW the term ' supervision' is used in the psychoanalytical sense, not in the usual business sense.

Good luck, it is a phenomenally difficult job that you do.

Thank you I appreciate your advice. I will heed what you say.

[Martley]

Genuine fixed price work is a huge pointer to being outside IR35, so if this is the case, your chances of winning are very good.

However, it may take a lot of pain and hassle from HMRC before they finally concede that point. Because IR35 is by it's very nature subjective, even if you know you are slam dunk outside IR35, you still have to be prepared to prove that to HMRC, which can still require some effort.

Thank you very much. Being in a 'caring' profession I'm not used to people like the HMRC. They seem like a dog with a bone and won't let go. I was told that they are targeting the public sector with these new IR 35 teams.

[vetran]

keep your chin up, let the experts do their thing, good luck!

[basshead]

The hmrc have been hounding me since January with the usual opening letter regarding a compliance check. Since then it's gone through relating to them the reasons why it is considered I fall outside IR 35, through to answering thirty odd questions, to answering three questions from within those thirty, to sending invoices and proof of indemnity and on and on. Now they are contacting the end client to try to arrange a meeting with them. Both of these clients I worked for for less than six months each. They had already asked me to meet them but my accountant said not to do it. I do have insurance against investigation, but it is a very stressful situation.

Having just been through a 10 month similar 'Business records check' which then led on to the 'Have you considered IR35?' type questions I found stressful as well - I found myself getting very angry with the whole situation, which in hindsight was pointless and counter-productive. HMRC aren't concerned about your value to any industry and seem to be mostly idiots with targets lately. 30-odd questions is very familiar, I'm sure they copy and paste around the same questions. How am I sure? Well, after refusing the face to face at which they wanted to pose me such questions, what came through by letter instead seemed to have been created through a huge search and replace operation and not proof-reading the result, and contained such gems as:

Who was you answerable to?
Was you subject to the Organisations disciplinary and attendance procedures?

I am in the PCG and have PCGPlus and so Abbey Tax handled the whole thing, but you still need to answer the questions they ask, your advisers can only help to shape the responses in the most appropriate way. Mine came to an end after they read my answers to the 30-odd questions and assessed 3 years of contracts as outside IR35. None of the end clients were contacted in the end.

I work in IT so different industry, but to me, your working practices sound outside of IR35. How are your contracts with respect IR35?