Beat IR35 - avoid being unnecessarily trapped

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2. Working arrangements:

If you have read our "IR35 Enquiries" section, you will know that during an IR35 investigation your contract will not be the only thing the Revenue will look at. The Inspector will also consider your physical working arrangements to make sure they are consistent with your contract. Furthermore, if you have read our "IR35 Enquiries" section, you will have learned that the Revenue do even consult contractors' clients regarding this WITHOUT notifying the contractors first.

Our second tip, therefore, is to clarify in writing with your client exactly what your physical working arrangements will be. In this fashion, if the Revenue were to consult your client before notifying you, you and you client will have already agreed your physical working arrangements and what your client describes to the Revenue is therefore unlikely to be at odds with your contract or your agreed understanding of the physical arrangements.

This clarification in writing with your client of your physical working conditions could be referred to as a "Working Arrangements Confirmation". Try to get this before you start work on the contract. The confirmation needs to support your assertion that you are self employed and needs to take account of the most popular "employed/self employed" tests (see below).

3. Satisfy as many as possible of the "self employment" tests:

In assessing your status (i.e. whether you are employed or self employed) you need to decide for each engagement whether your contract is in the nature of employment or self-employment. We identify below the main status tests, and you should try to address all of them.

Right of substitution:

An essential part of employment is personal service. If you have the right to send a substitute in your place, then you are not obligated to provide personal service. This will tend to suggest you are self employed rather than employed.

Control:

If the relationship between the recipient of the services and the provider is one of "master and servant" then the recipient of the services has a right of control and the provider will be deemed to be employed. Therefore, try to ensure your contract is a "contract for services" rather than a "service contract".

Termination:

A common aspect of employment contracts is the obligation to give notice of termination a certain amount of time in advance. Try, therefore, to make sure your contract and working arrangements indicate that your contract will terminate on completion of the task you were retained to undertake rather than after a notice period.

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Full index of pages:

Home Page IR35 Background - page 1 IR35 Background - page 2 IR35 Background - page 3

IR35 Rules - page 1 IR35 Rules - page 2 Beat IR35 - page 1 Beat IR35 - page 2

Beat IR35 - page 3 Beat IR35 - page 4 Ltd Company - page 1 Ltd Company - page 2

Ltd Company - page 3 Ltd Company - page 4 Umbrella Companies - page 1

Umbrella Companies - page 2 Composite Companies - page 1 Composite Companies - page 2

Composite Co - page 3 Composite Co - page 4 MSC - page 1 MSC - page 2 IR35 Insurance

IR35 Investigations - page 1 IR35 Investigations - page 2 Contracts - page 1

Contracts - page 2 Contracts - page 3 Resources 1 Resources 2 Resources 2 Sitemap