The IR35 Forum held their fourth meeting last month, where a number of issues were addressed including the latest on the IR35 ‘business test’ and discussion on prioritising high risk cases. One of the members of the IR35 Forum this week spoke to a leading contractor news site to give an inside account.
Kate Cottrell, of employment law specialists Bauer and Cottrell, spoke to Shout99 to offer an expert view of the current IR35 situation following the risk assessment discussed in November’s meeting. The way that HMRC identify potential IR35 investigations has been one of the key topics in the previous IR35 Forum meetings.
Ms Cottrell revealed that current HMRC proposals focus on their ‘risk profiling policy’. “This is the system they use to decide whether or not to investigate you in the first place. This will enable HMRC generally to restrict IR35 investigations to ‘high risk’ cases.”
She continued saying that high risk cases will be outlined by April, bringing clarity to those involved. It was also stated that HMRC are committed to improving their compliance activity for these cases which could lead to more high risk investigations. Whilst she admitted that there is still a lot of work to do, Ms Cottrell said “we should have a much improved administration of IR35 by April 2012.”
There were further interesting comments regarding HMRC’s IR35 strategy, with the high risk cases expected to be targeted in order to “yield significant sums compared to the past”. Ms Cottrell called this “good news so far for those at low risk, providing we can reach agreement on who falls into which group and providing we have good guidance and support. When this is achieved IR35 will be much easier to deal with for everyone.”
ICS work with a team of experts in employment and tax law to ensure our services are fully compliant with existing IR35 legislation and the latest government regulations, such as the AWR. You can contact us now for a tailored proposal based on your individual circumstances as a contractor.
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