Contract under IR35?

[Sockpuppet]

The best way to get around IR35 is to refuse the contracts that are clearly IR35 ridden.

I went self employed / own ltd (you know what I mean) so that I could be my own boss and work when I wanted. So IR35 caught contracts are not my bag baby.

[Dark Black]

On the whole "hours of work" thing, what's the general opinion on somewhere that defines core hours (e.g on site between 10am-4pm) but start and finish time is otherwise free. Would that be considered flexible enough to help avoid IR35 or not?

I should mention than in this particular case there is a requirement to work on site due to the security nature of the work.

[malvolio]

On the whole "hours of work" thing, what's the general opinion on somewhere that defines core hours (e.g on site between 10am-4pm) but start and finish time is otherwise free. Would that be considered flexible enough to help avoid IR35 or not?

I should mention than in this particular case there is a requirement to work on site due to the security nature of the work.

If there is a business reason for you to be there, it is not Direction and Control and so is not an IR35 pointer in either direction. A support worker really has to be around during the normal hours of work of his client's permanent workers purely in order to do their job, so it's not a D&C issue.

[farazfastian]

Well its confusing, I don't think all the contractors have this luxury of refusing contractors just because they're inside IR35, if you dont have work for few months you won't be caring what's the nature of contract instead you'll just grab it. And I think thats true majority of contractors doing contracts via limited company which are inside IR35 but they're just doing it and taking risk of investigation which is pretty low in frequency.

So after researching on this issue and having comments from experts/normal contractors I've come to the conclusion that go for a limited company, get contract verified and insured i.e. having all the legal documents and just leave it . And if you are the rare one for investigation, face it show all the proofs, hope that the colleagues at client side might have gone by that time and hopefully you'll pass through the investigation.

Regards
Faraz

[Bluebird]

Well its confusing, I don't think all the contractors have this luxury of refusing contractors just because they're inside IR35, if you dont have work for few months you won't be caring what's the nature of contract instead you'll just grab it. And I think thats true majority of contractors doing contracts via limited company which are inside IR35 but they're just doing it and taking risk of investigation which is pretty low in frequency.

So after researching on this issue and having comments from experts/normal contractors I've come to the conclusion that go for a limited company, get contract verified and insured i.e. having all the legal documents and just leave it . And if you are the rare one for investigation, face it show all the proofs, hope that the colleagues at client side might have gone by that time and hopefully you'll pass through the investigation.

Regards
Faraz

You're quite right Faraz, although there are a few steps/measures you can take that will help in the event of an investigation - they've all been mentioned here and in other IR35 threads...