"HMRC will stand by the result given"

[mudskipper]

The tool has changed.

The "equipment" question now explicitly excludes laptops - that's going to catch a lot more.

"Equipment - including heavy machinery, industrial vehicles or high-cost specialist equipment, but not including phones, tablets or laptops."

And there is a "version number" at the bottom of the results page, so they can tie your decision outcome to the questions.

[eek]

The tool has changed.

The "equipment" question now explicitly excludes laptops - that's going to catch a lot more.

"Equipment - including heavy machinery, industrial vehicles or high-cost specialist equipment, but not including phones, tablets or laptops."

And there is a "version number" at the bottom of the results page, so they can tie your decision outcome to the questions.

so the equipment question now bears even less resemblance to the law than before.

[SueEllen]

Current version says 1.1.1-final

[eek]

Just redone the survey with my current status at clientco... Easy outside verdict and the Permies would get the same answer...

[javadude]

The tool has changed.

The "equipment" question now explicitly excludes laptops - that's going to catch a lot more.

"Equipment - including heavy machinery, industrial vehicles or high-cost specialist equipment, but not including phones, tablets or laptops."

And there is a "version number" at the bottom of the results page, so they can tie your decision outcome to the questions.

So if I need to supply my own laptop to provide an IT service that's not valid but heavy machinery is OK.

[RonBW]

The tool has changed.

The "equipment" question now explicitly excludes laptops - that's going to catch a lot more.

"Equipment - including heavy machinery, industrial vehicles or high-cost specialist equipment, but not including phones, tablets or laptops."

And there is a "version number" at the bottom of the results page, so they can tie your decision outcome to the questions.

Interesting - the print out I have from day one gives me an outside determination based on me needing a laptop for this client that I didn't have or need before the project.

If I run the same answers now, I get indeterminate answer - because the guidance has changed. My print out doesn't give the guidance or a version number, but was done accurately a few days ago.

Interesting times ahead.

[Andy Hallett]

The ESS has been surprisingly generous in terms of outside determinations, this is not surprising news if HMRC are tweaking it.

[Yorkie62]

So if I need to supply my own laptop to provide an IT service that's not valid but heavy machinery is OK.

Just buy the heaviest laptop you can find. Where is the definition of heavy?

[gables]

The tool has changed.

The "equipment" question now explicitly excludes laptops - that's going to catch a lot more.

"Equipment - including heavy machinery, industrial vehicles or high-cost specialist equipment, but not including phones, tablets or laptops."

And there is a "version number" at the bottom of the results page, so they can tie your decision outcome to the questions.

Interesting that it could be seen that contracts\working practices could be contrived to 'get around IR35' and in my view here we have HMRC contriving a question to catch us.

[WordIsBond]

Well, if a laptop isn't listed under "equipment" is it included under "Other expenses" or does it just not exist, according to HMRC? Perhaps they can tell us where we can buy laptops for free, so that purchasing them doesn't incur "financial risk".

It appears that if you have to fix a job on your own time if you mess up, that's a silver bullet. But I've spent far more on laptops than I've ever had to spending on fixing errors in my work. I suppose the exposure of the latter is a lot higher, but in actual expenses incurred, it's the former that has hit me and is likely to go on hitting me.