Staying in the same public sector contract after April 2017

[pscont]

This may have been answered before but under the new rules, will they deduct 40% tax from day 1? Or will they ask for your tax code ? Some contractors will barely reach the 40% tax band and it seems unimaginable that they would have to wait until the end of that tax year (and the self return filing dates) before they see any refund .

I seem to remember it was weekly payment * number of weeks = your total year income, and hence the tax % on the whole figure.
Tough luck - you will have to wait for refund via SA.

[jamesbrown]

Retrospective action has happened before..... going back five years.

I think it's worth being precise here. I was talking about retrospective changes to IR35 itself, in the way they've sought to "clarify" other legislation, and not about the ordinary course in which investigations happen. Investigations are always "retrospective", often many years afterwards. The OP was right about one thing though - moving from outside to inside is quite likely to initiate new cases. They don't have the resources, currently, to fulfill a large number of cases, but they do have the resources to start them, and some people will fold quickly.

[eek]

I think it's worth being precise here. I was talking about retrospective changes to IR35 itself, in the way they've sought to "clarify" other legislation, and not about the ordinary course in which investigations happen. Investigations are always "retrospective", often many years afterwards. The OP was right about one thing though - moving from outside to inside is quite likely to initiate new cases. They don't have the resources, currently, to fulfill a large number of cases, but they do have the resources to start them, and some people will fold quickly.

And that's both the important bit and the worry here. It's difficult to look at someones tax return and decide to investigate them (something has to be odd or annoying for them to spend time looking at you) for people remaining past April its very easy..

Here's a list of people who are now being paid with tax withhold. Here is a list of agency returns from February. Merge those 2 lists and HMRC are good to go.... Where people say there will not be retrospective cases because of the work required - the thing to remember is that work will have already been done. And creating a large pile of work for the future is irrelevant when you are resolving today's senior management request.

[jamesbrown]

And that's both the important bit and the worry here. It's difficult to look at someones tax return and decide to investigate them (something has to be odd or annoying for them to spend time looking at you) for people remaining past April its very easy..

Here's a list of people who are now being paid with tax withhold. Here is a list of agency returns from February. Merge those 2 lists and HMRC are good to go.... Where people say there will not be retrospective cases because of the work required - the thing to remember is that work will have already been done. And creating a large pile of work for the future is irrelevant when you are resolving today's senior management request.

Yep, agreed.

[MrMarkyMark]

And that's both the important bit and the worry here. It's difficult to look at someones tax return and decide to investigate them (something has to be odd or annoying for them to spend time looking at you) for people remaining past April its very easy..

Here's a list of people who are now being paid with tax withhold. Here is a list of agency returns from February. Merge those 2 lists and HMRC are good to go.... Where people say there will not be retrospective cases because of the work required - the thing to remember is that work will have already been done. And creating a large pile of work for the future is irrelevant when you are resolving today's senior management request.

Its obvious simplicity, heck, if they split the data up they even make be able to use VLOOKUPs in Excel .

Simple, low investment, potential high return, just like HMRC likes it

[SeededLoaf]

From reading all the posts here, the general sentiment is that Hector is coming so get ready and bend over.

Perhaps an investigation amnesty would have helped if we went brolly but stayed with the same agency/client? Yes I don't agree i'm in IR35 but will accept a cut for the sake of not damaging my business relationship and future contract wins.

My clientco has turned around and offered an uplift. It would cover the tax but obviously not a retrospective claim.

[perplexed]

Its obvious simplicity, heck, if they split the data up they even make be able to use VLOOKUPs in Excel .

Simple, low investment, potential high return, just like HMRC likes it

VLOOKUPs in Excel?

Expect to see contract roles advertised for Excel experts... inside IR35, naturally...

[Fred Bloggs]

This hysterical nonsense about thousands of back dated IR35 investigations is just simple utter nonsense. HMRC have had all the data they need in their databases to very accurately pinpoint all the low hanging IR35 fruit by running a few Janet and John grade SQL queries for many, many years. It hasn't happened yet and it won't happen after April 6th either.

Remember, this is a gov't dept we're talking about here. They struggle to even function from day to day without melting down. How on earth can you possibly see the end of the world arriving on April 6th 2017? Seriously, things are bad enough without exaggerating it a million fold.

[SueEllen]

This hysterical nonsense about thousands of back dated IR35 investigations is just simple utter nonsense. HMRC have had all the data they need in their databases to very accurately pinpoint all the low hanging IR35 fruit by running a few Janet and John grade SQL queries for many, many years. It hasn't happened yet and it won't happen after April 6th either.

Remember, this is a gov't dept we're talking about here. They struggle to even function from day to day without melting down. How on earth can you possibly see the end of the world arriving on April 6th 2017? Seriously, things are bad enough without exaggerating it a million fold.

You forget political decisions don't have to make sense and be practical.

[perplexed]

This hysterical nonsense about thousands of back dated IR35 investigations is just simple utter nonsense. HMRC have had all the data they need in their databases to very accurately pinpoint all the low hanging IR35 fruit by running a few Janet and John grade SQL queries for many, many years. It hasn't happened yet and it won't happen after April 6th either.

Remember, this is a gov't dept we're talking about here. They struggle to even function from day to day without melting down. How on earth can you possibly see the end of the world arriving on April 6th 2017? Seriously, things are bad enough without exaggerating it a million fold.

Sure, HMRC have had all the information.

Point being, from my perspective, is now public sector clients will be either a) handing up contractors on a plate to HMRC, doing Hector's work for them or b) manipulating the system to claim all contractors are outside, which will then lead Hector to focus upon those particular clients.

To me it's like the difference between police having to do the legwork to find a suspect for a crime and the police being given detailed CCTV footage and other evidence along with the suspect's name and address.