Changing schedule

[zerosum]

Hi,

I've been doing a contract for about a year with a pretty specific deliverable in the schedule; .Net consulting basically.

End-client has done really well and is starting to pull in some related business, for example Office 365 specific. They asked me if I wanted to work on this as well, in a similar consulting role, in addition to the ongoing .Net stuff. An extension has been offered.

For helping against any ir35 investigation, would it be sufficient/or indeed is it even useful to change the schedule to reflect the updated deliverables? They would be willing to issue a different contract if necessary, but I'm assuming an updated schedule would be sufficient?

And yes, I realise this is not in and of itself enough to determine ir35 status..the contract and working practices as they stand are pretty good from this point of view though.

[northernladuk]

I would say it is absolutely essential you get a new one per piece of work. The JLJ case partially failed as he stopped doing this and became part and parcel of the client. Without a clearly defined schedule you are going to have a hard time defending yourself against Direction and Control which is one of the key elements of IR35.

It isn't a silver bullet though and you still have to consider the working practices. You still have to appear like a contractor to your client and not let him treat you like part of the workforce even though you have the detailed schedule of work. If he sees you as an enduring resource no amount of paperwork will save you when HMRC come interview him.

Get the schedules but keep an eye on other aspects of your relationship with the client as well.

[zerosum]

I would say it is absolutely essential you get a new one per piece of work. The JLJ case partially failed as he stopped doing this and became part and parcel of the client. Without a clearly defined schedule you are going to have a hard time defending yourself against Direction and Control which is one of the key elements of IR35.

It isn't a silver bullet though and you still have to consider the working practices. You still have to appear like a contractor to your client and not let him treat you like part of the workforce even though you have the detailed schedule of work. If he sees you as an enduring resource no amount of paperwork will save you when HMRC come interview him.

Get the schedules but keep an eye on other aspects of your relationship with the client as well.

Thanks a lot for the reply.

Lots of good points; the fact that this whole thing has come up just as I'm about to be extended is a coincidence, but reading your post makes me thing the two really have nothing to do with each other, and I should get a separate schedule as and when the different pieces of work come up. For the moment the Office 365 thing has not kicked off so it was meant to be a pre-emptive move.

[DirtyDog]

End-client has done really well and is starting to pull in some related business, for example Office 365 specific. They asked me if I wanted to work on this as well, in a similar consulting role, in addition to the ongoing .Net stuff. An extension has been offered.

A new contract or schedule would certainly help formalise the relationship. However, since the client is asking whether you are interested in taking on this new piece or work, rather than just assigning you to the work, is already a good indicator of lack of MoO, so if the contract / schedule change is an issue then I wouldn't turn away the extension because of this.

[northernladuk]

A new contract or schedule would certainly help formalise the relationship. However, since the client is asking whether you are interested in taking on this new piece or work, rather than just assigning you to the work, is already a good indicator of lack of MoO, so if the contract / schedule change is an issue then I wouldn't turn away the extension because of this.

I would agree with this but there needs to be evidence of this request. We had a poster last week who was happy just to keep accepting work and looks like part and parcel and the relationship has blurred to the extent I would have said he was in a lot of trouble. I would most certainly continue to be very pragmatic with the paperwork and push to have it documented. Getting lackadaisical about it could start in to the same slide that shot JLJ in the foot. In a single case I would do the same as DD says but keep a very close eye on it. It could be much better to set a good precedence early rather than try and save it further down the line.

[zerosum]

Thanks everyone.

Getting an appropriate schedule per piece of work won't be a problem. End-client is generally very accommodating. The amount of time allocated respectively to each (piece of work) might unfortunately involve a bit of advance guesswork.

I was actually thinking that I might need to change the contract, or get a new contract issued; end-client has said they are certainly willing to do this, and the agent does whatever they're told, but it's more of a rigmarole than just getting a dedicated schedule.

[northernladuk]

You could just get him to terminate the contract if the work is finished early and start a new one. Will only work once or twice before it becomes obvious it is just a paperwork exercise. Constantly changing pieces of work over a longish period is also going to end up looking like a sham as well to be honest. If you are there for any period of time I would seriously look at the situation and get professional advice.