Consultation on IR35 reforms in the private sector

[independancerocks]

No Surprise...

If only! I doubt not too...

What is genuinely surprising is the lack of traffic on this forum about the private sector off payroll implementation.

Why surprised? Most contractors fall into that group of being the last to think about IR35.
If they think about it then it's usually an oh well I'll meet that when it comes, with as much understanding as they have about how much tax they actually do pay now.

The point is, many contractors don't realise the full responsibilities of running their own business and so will stumble blindly into IR35 even where they should not.

This will be compounded by the ignorance of the clients and agencies who insist on contract clauses that are straight copies from employment or temp contracts.

Most contractors I work alongside make few to no changes to their contracts and accept what is offered. The most common defence agencies give for poor contracts is ".. But we have n hundred contractors on this contract, why are you different".

My answer is I read the contract and do not wish to work inside IR35.
... And nor should the agency!

This last point actually makes it easier to get the changes I needed ironically. (I sometimes think I should charge for the improvements I advise!.. And no I'm not a legal!)

So I think most contractors have a little bit of blissful ignorance and many are just at a loss.

If only all this collective intelligence could be brought together we might have a voice.

For now I fear we have the mostly ignored bleats of our representative organisations who do the best they can... Sigh....

[ShandyDrinker]

Why surprised? Most contractors fall into that group of being the last to think about IR35.
If they think about it then it's usually an oh well I'll meet that when it comes, with as much understanding as they have about how much tax they actually do pay now.

The point is, many contractors don't realise the full responsibilities of running their own business and so will stumble blindly into IR35 even where they should not.

This will be compounded by the ignorance of the clients and agencies who insist on contract clauses that are straight copies from employment or temp contracts.

Most contractors I work alongside make few to no changes to their contracts and accept what is offered. The most common defence agencies give for poor contracts is ".. But we have n hundred contractors on this contract, why are you different".

My answer is I read the contract and do not wish to work inside IR35.
... And nor should the agency!

This last point actually makes it easier to get the changes I needed ironically. (I sometimes think I should charge for the improvements I advise!.. And no I'm not a legal!)

So I think most contractors have a little bit of blissful ignorance and many are just at a loss.

If only all this collective intelligence could be brought together we might have a voice.

For now I fear we have the mostly ignored bleats of our representative organisations who do the best they can... Sigh....

Spot on.

Sadly I would say that among the many contractors I've worked with over the last decade or so of contracting, a significant number have shown little or no interest in educating themselves about IR35. This has been particularly prevalent with the long term permitractors in larger organisations.

I've always been genuinely torn between considering long term contractors in an organisation obviously providing value because they keep delivering and because they keep their noses clean, don't make trouble and therefore get renewed almost as a reward for being a good chap (or chapess).

I was quite clear when I started contracting that I'd only ever want to work on projects of up to a couple of years and then move on to something new.

It is sad that, apart from a very vocal minority, the majority of contractors appear to be content to be passengers on the train which is about have a big crash post April 2020 and then wonder what the hell happened.