Agreement with client

[VectraMan]

Got a job offer! WooHoo!

But.. whilst the contract with the agent could be better regarding that well known tax law we all love (I'm sure they'll agree to a few tweaks), I've also got a contract from the client which says all sorts of scary things like "the contractor is self employed" and "under the control of the manager", and a lot of other stuff that ought to be between client and agent and nothing to do with me anyway.

Obviously I'm not going to agree to have anything to do with this. But I'm wondering is it normal to have any agreement at all between contractor and client when there's an agent in the middle? My first contract role I had to sign an NDA for the client, which I was happy to do and would again, but is even that going to far and that ought to be captured by the contractor-agent and agent-client contracts?

[Denny]

Got a job offer! WooHoo!

But.. whilst the contract with the agent could be better regarding that well known tax law we all love (I'm sure they'll agree to a few tweaks), I've also got a contract from the client which says all sorts of scary things like "the contractor is self employed" and "under the control of the manager", and a lot of other stuff that ought to be between client and agent and nothing to do with me anyway.

Obviously I'm not going to agree to have anything to do with this. But I'm wondering is it normal to have any agreement at all between contractor and client when there's an agent in the middle? My first contract role I had to sign an NDA for the client, which I was happy to do and would again, but is even that going to far and that ought to be captured by the contractor-agent and agent-client contracts?

Some end-clients are tulip scared that even going through an agency as a limited won't necessarily disqualify you from you being viewed as an psuedo employee with rights should you be there long enough. That's why they've asked you to sign it. My guess is that this contract they're expecting you to sign will mean diddly squat to any judge if you signed that 'you are under the control of your manager' should things go pear shaped. That's precisely the kind of problem the Revenue have with IR35 exemption and will certainly imply in practice 'employment' rather than self employment. Unless you are a truly autonomous genuine IR35 exempt business (as set out by the IR) it could damage your IR35 exemption too. Try suggesting to them that you either don't sign it or else they take that clause out and change your job title to that of .......consultant either through the agency or with them directly. That might be a stronger safeguard for them than what they are currently proposing. My instinct though is not to sign it at all and just go through your agency.