can other peoples' working practices affect your IR35 status?

[lambrini_socialist]

if other contractors are fannying around going on ClientCo's training courses, booking "leave" with HR, billing for time spent at Xmas lunches etc because "everyone gets paid", etc, but you yourself are not, could this potentially stuff things up for your IR35 status?

[pmeswani]

if other contractors are fannying around going on ClientCo's training courses, booking "leave" with HR, billing for time spent at Xmas lunches etc because "everyone gets paid", etc, but you yourself are not, could this potentially stuff things up for your IR35 status?

Nope. Billing companies for time you have worked won't affect your IR35 status. It is unlikely, but not impossible, for the other contractors to be IR35 caught just because they went on Company training. If there is nothing in the contract about the client providing training, then I can't see where the problem is. If the client is paying, don't complain, but if you get asked by HMRC, prepare to have answers.

[lambrini_socialist]

i kind of mean, where they are comprehensively and in absolutely every respect behaving like employees. surely an IR35 review of my own working practices could end up tainted by this?

[pmeswani]

i kind of mean, where they are comprehensively and in absolutely every respect behaving like employees. surely an IR35 review of my own working practices could end up tainted by this?

Not necessarily. If the client is happy with the way the contractors are working, as long as there is nothing in the contract that would make them IR35 caught, they will be ok. Not a great thing to do... but you will get these types of contractors who take liberties.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

It would depend on your 'working' practises rather than whether contractors you work with had integrated themselves into the social network of the company. However, if this was the general behaviour amongst the contractors that work there I would ask myself why. If a client company encourages the integration of contractors into the general workforce to the degree that you mentioned in the OP I would doubt that they would allow, for instance, an unfettered ROS.

[lambrini_socialist]

I would doubt that they would allow, for instance, an unfettered ROS.

...which i have, as it happens, and while i reckon i could invoke it if push came to shove, it would raise more than a few eyebrows (as i suspect is the case for most folks on here).

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

...which i have, as it happens, and while i reckon i could invoke it if push came to shove, it would raise more than a few eyebrows (as i suspect is the case for most folks on here).

This was the problem in the Dragonfly case - although the contractor had, what he saw, as an unfettered ROS, when it came down to it, the client stated that they would certainly not be happy with a replacement. Mr Justice Henderson even went to the extent of questioning whether a one-man limited company could excercise and ROS.

[pmeswani]

This was the problem in the Dragonfly case - although the contractor had, what he saw, as an unfettered ROS, when it came down to it, the client stated that they would certainly not be happy with a replacement. Mr Justice Henderson even went to the extent of questioning whether a one-man limited company could excercise and ROS.

Wasn't the DragonFly case an exception rather than the rule? How long did the guy work at the client site?

[TheFaQQer]

Wasn't the DragonFly case an exception rather than the rule? How long did the guy work at the client site?

It doesn't matter whether it's an exception or not any more - it's set a legal precedent.

Length of time on site makes no difference to IR35 status.

[TheFaQQer]

if other contractors are fannying around going on ClientCo's training courses, booking "leave" with HR, billing for time spent at Xmas lunches etc because "everyone gets paid", etc, but you yourself are not, could this potentially stuff things up for your IR35 status?

Not as such, but I would expect that in the event of an investigation, it might be harder to prove that you did not behave in that matter.

It only takes the client to say "oh yes, he was just like the others, and it was like they all worked for us" to blow the case out of the water.