Contracting for Company where I was previously Permanently Employed and IR35

[Murder1]

BETs are largely a risk assessment tool - they are indicative of your risk of investigation according to HMRCs own criteria. They do not determine your IR35 status.

Multiple contracts might score you points on the BETs and reduce your investigation risk but they change nothing with regards to the IR35 status of each individual contract.

Multiple contracts aren't covered in the BET's so they have no bearing on any potential risk to investigation. However as you say if the question of IR35 pertains to each individual contract why waste time asking questions not contract specific to assess risk. I appreciate HMRC like to keep things as vague as possible

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Multiple contracts aren't covered in the BET's so they have no bearing on any potential risk to investigation. However as you say if the question of IR35 pertains to each individual contract why waste time asking questions not contract specific to assess risk. I appreciate HMRC like to keep things as vague as possible

Its been a while since I looked at the BETs - I thought it did cover them. The BETs are rubbish anyway. I think we all know that.

[northernladuk]

And which client would provide the other income? Another piece of work at your ex employer or completely different clients? Personally I would ditch such a small piece of high risk work if it would jeopardise my ability to get a much better full time one. If your type of work can be done in parallel then fine. If this work is minimal just account for it being inside IR35 and have done. The risk and potential unwanted interest just aren't worth the returns.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

If your type of work can be done in parallel then fine. If this work is minimal just account for it being inside IR35 and have done.

As Martin pointed out, if the high risk contract brought in less than what OP was paying themselves as their basic salary, their tax obligations would be satisfied with respect to IR35 anyway.

That said, if one higher risk contract increases your chance of an investigation which would then bring potentially all of your contracts under further scrutiny it might not be worth it.