IR35 Indemnity

[malvolio]

That depends very much on the industry and your specialism. If it's a small, niche community then it could be worthwhile. If you thought highly of the PM then you could just send a note saying thanks for giving me the opportunity and you're sorry it didn't work out but sadly contractual terms were not favourable on this occasion. If they care, they may ask for more info but don't be surprised if you hear nothing back. Sending war and peace will do you no favours.

What you have to remember is that the client doesn't really care about the terms you have with the agent / umbrella as the whole point of passing on the work to them is to avoid doing it themselves. The overarching contract they have with the agency may well include clauses that cover this indemnity and they've been sold that as a benefit of working with the agency.

I'm often in two minds over whether to drag the client into this and you'll get varying opinions from the collective.

Yes, I agree. I have only rarely dropped an application for a role because of the agency being stupid but have always emailed the hiring manager to apologise for the agency preventing me from joining the team just in case there is something to be gained from it. Never had a response, so I guess not!

[David71]

Quick update.
Took the role, the idea of running two clients at once (this wasn't hidden from the agency) plus a positive IR35 QDOS contract review, swung it for me.
Agent reiterated many times the role was outside IR35.
Started last week, spent the first couple of days remotely filling in forms, 'onboarding' etc. followed by a site visit later in the week.

• First 'oddness'; during 'Onboarding' being offered 'home working equipment' if I needed - monitors, keyboards etc. I mentioned I was a contractor and I'd buy anything I needed myself.....they repeated that I was welcome 'to order anything I needed' from their 'stores'
• Next 'oddness'; being 'invited' to daily, morning, team meetings with an expectation of attendance.....hmmmm....but I'm not a member of your 'team'.....and I can work whatever hours I like (according to my contract) and I really don't do mornings.....
• Followed by; 'we're in the office twice a week at least'...with an expectation so would I.....hmmmm.. that's a bit different to 'occasional site visits' and the contractual 'Work from anywhere you want'
• And then the biggie! 'Here's your corporate branded polo shirt'....Me: I'd rather not thank you.....P.M. 'But you must!'

Well, that was a nice few days of running two clients at once. Back to just the one now

On a positive note, I'll get paid for the 3 days I invoiced with no issue (no £££ in the bank yet, but recieved the invoice approval today).

[northernladuk]

Did you get an SDS from the client/agent?

This is the kind of situation that shows self filling in IR35 questions is pointless.

[jamesbrown]

Agent reiterated many times the role was outside IR35

About that bridge...

[David71]

Did you get an SDS from the client/agent?

This is the kind of situation that shows self filling in IR35 questions is pointless.

Yep; SDS supplied. Working practices etc. all as expected for an Outside contract.

Agent was livid with the client when we spoke, he nearly had a stroke when tallking about me being given a client branded polo shirt!

Thing that did annoy me, and I think the agent, is that this will make a great little gig for someone as long as it has the correct IR35 determination but because it wasn't, everyone's time has just been wasted.

[ladymuck]

It sounds like whoever did the SDS was either an idiot or not connected to the people you were going to be working with so they had their expectations and the SDS filler-inner had theirs and never the twain shall meet.

What a shame for you, that would have been quite handy.

[eek]

Quick update.
Took the role, the idea of running two clients at once (this wasn't hidden from the agency) plus a positive IR35 QDOS contract review, swung it for me.
Agent reiterated many times the role was outside IR35.
Started last week, spent the first couple of days remotely filling in forms, 'onboarding' etc. followed by a site visit later in the week.

• First 'oddness'; during 'Onboarding' being offered 'home working equipment' if I needed - monitors, keyboards etc. I mentioned I was a contractor and I'd buy anything I needed myself.....they repeated that I was welcome 'to order anything I needed' from their 'stores'
• Next 'oddness'; being 'invited' to daily, morning, team meetings with an expectation of attendance.....hmmmm....but I'm not a member of your 'team'.....and I can work whatever hours I like (according to my contract) and I really don't do mornings.....
• Followed by; 'we're in the office twice a week at least'...with an expectation so would I.....hmmmm.. that's a bit different to 'occasional site visits' and the contractual 'Work from anywhere you want'
• And then the biggie! 'Here's your corporate branded polo shirt'....Me: I'd rather not thank you.....P.M. 'But you must!'

Well, that was a nice few days of running two clients at once. Back to just the one now

On a positive note, I'll get paid for the 3 days I invoiced with no issue (no £££ in the bank yet, but recieved the invoice approval today).

You previously mentioned paystream doing the review, why did you use QDOS as they could only sanity check the contract, they wouldn't know the business processes (as you found out).

And post April 2021 the contract is really completely irrelevant.

[David71]

You previously mentioned paystream doing the review, why did you use QDOS as they could only sanity check the contract, they wouldn't know the business processes (as you found out).

And post April 2021 the contract is really completely irrelevant.

Paystream do the review of working practices 4 weeks into the contract to ensure the actual working practices match the clients original SDS - if they don't then the contract would be switched to inside IR35.

[eek]

It sounds like whoever did the SDS was either an idiot or not connected to the people you were going to be working with so they had their expectations and the SDS filler-inner had theirs and never the twain shall meet.

What a shame for you, that would have been quite handy.

I posted regarding something else on LinkedIn today where I pointed out that the reason why many companies have blanket bans on outside IR35 contracts is because management can't trust their staff not to be idiots.

This seems like a prime example where the client needs to implement a similar rule just to protect themselves.