For Professional Contractors and Freelancers, the IR35 legislation can be a minefield.
If you were to get your IR35 status wrong; you could be liable to pay HMRC many thousands of pounds in unpaid tax and potential penalties.
But, with the ever increasing case law, how can you have peace of mind that you have determined your status correctly?
Status is determined on many issues and each and every contract is unique and should be assessed individually.
As a Director of your Limited Comapny you have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that your company considers the position on IR35. Your end client have increasing interest in ensuring that you work under conditions that are outside IR35, and these developments can help you when negotiating your position.
Arm yourself with knowledge so that when negotiating a contract’s terms and conditions; you can make informed decisions thus giving you more bargaining power.
Whilst you can assess your contract yourself, do you know what evidence to keep ? Should you consider having your contract assessed by a professional ?
To ensure that you do not incur HMRC penalties it is vital that you have taken reasonable care in the eyes of HMRC. That means do not ignore IR35 !
Article written by Sally Fletcher
What is IR35 I’ve been in this line of work for a while now a d I still fail to fully undersatnd what IR 35 is?!?! Will we ever find out?
You can find a good explanation on the HMRC website:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ir35/index.htm
Daniel Freeman
Director
http://www.financialmodelling.com