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[Wanderer]

Some of you may remember that I joined these forums when trying to decide how best to move from permie to contracting whilst still working for the company I would have liked to contract for. Now I fully understand why 6 months ago this would have been a bad idea but there is a possibility that some work will come my way in the next month for said company and I wondered if my position had now changed since then.

I know it's not what you want to hear but returning to a previous PAYE employer within 12 months is a big no no when it comes to IR35. Sorry.

Take a look at HMRC's Business Entity Tests and tell us what you score. A quick calculation shows that you would probably be somewhere between -4 and 6 points which puts you firmly into the "high risk" category for an IR35 fail.

[d000hg]

You can just take the work and be inside IR35 if the rate is good enough (or you've nothing better to do) and you are worried you would fail an investigation. Or you could take the work and get IR35 insurance, making 100% sure the policy will cover your circumstances.

[northernladuk]

You can just take the work and be inside IR35 if the rate is good enough (or you've nothing better to do) and you are worried you would fail an investigation. Or you could take the work and get IR35 insurance, making 100% sure the policy will cover your circumstances.

I don't think taking insurance is enough to warrant claiming outside IR35 on an inside IR35 gig is it?

[pmeswani]

Some of you may remember that I joined these forums when trying to decide how best to move from permie to contracting whilst still working for the company I would have liked to contract for. Now I fully understand why 6 months ago this would have been a bad idea but there is a possibility that some work will come my way in the next month for said company and I wondered if my position had now changed since then.

My guess is the answer is "yes" as I've separated myself from the company as an employee and will be returning to them to fulfill a specific piece of work, on a contract basis, for which I have pretty niche skills which they have found (and to be fair I told them) they can't get elsewhere.

Would you folks concur? Any pitfalls/gotchas I haven't thought of?

My first question I would ask, other than the IR35 one that is currently being discussed, is that of your rights to claim redundancy. How long have you been working at your current client? If you have been working for them long enough to claim redundancy, if you left tomorrow and worked for the same client on Monday, and then terminated at the end of the week, would you cry foul? And would you lose your redundnacy rights?

Just asking like.

[rootsnall]

You can just take the work and be inside IR35 if the rate is good enough (or you've nothing better to do) and you are worried you would fail an investigation. Or you could take the work and get IR35 insurance, making 100% sure the policy will cover your circumstances.

WHS, but without the insurance bit, unless things have changed then the insurance is just to cover your representation in an inquiry, so that won't get you out of jail. I assume it'll be direct with your ex employer so just make sure you are getting the 20%(ish) an agent would normally get and that covers your potential NI liability of the worst comes to the worst. I think if you just stay for 6 months then its very unlikely you'll come to any grief.

[d000hg]

I don't think taking insurance is enough to warrant claiming outside IR35 on an inside IR35 gig is it?

THat's what I meant about checking you're covered, i.e. having the contract reviewed and checking the broker knows the situation. It sounds unlikely to me too.

@rootsnall, I thought IR35 insurance covered the additional tax you would have to pay if deemed inside IR35 when the insurer (i.e. PCG) was happy you were outside IR35. In fact I thought that was the whole point of IR35 insurance.

[rootsnall]

@rootsnall, I thought IR35 insurance covered the additional tax you would have to pay if deemed inside IR35 when the insurer (i.e. PCG) was happy you were outside IR35. In fact I thought that was the whole point of IR35 insurance.

There may be products out there that promise that but I'd be very sceptical it would ever pay out if it did.

The PCG offering most certainly didn't cover additional tax when I last had it 2 years ago, it paid for specialist firms to fight your case thats all, and for what you pay I wouldn't expect anything more than that.

[d000hg]

Thanks for the clarification.

[rootsnall]

Thanks for the clarification.

Maybe double check that with PCG, but pretty sure it's correct.

[Wanderer]

I thought IR35 insurance covered the additional tax you would have to pay if deemed inside IR35 when the insurer (i.e. PCG) was happy you were outside IR35. In fact I thought that was the whole point of IR35 insurance.

Depends on the policy. I think the PCG offering covers the cost of representing you during the investigation but the tax and penalties are on your own head.

Other policies like TLC35 from QDOS appear to cover the tax liability so might be worth a look.