Friday 11 May 2012

IR35 update

Against a backdrop of increased public anger over the use of personal service companies (PSCs) by top public officials, HMRC has published an IR35 guide and launched a dedicated helpline.

It covers everything relevant to the intermediaries legislation – more commonly known as ‘IR35’.

The legislation is aimed at stopping those who use intermediaries “from being better off than they would have been had their end clients employed them directly”.

HMRC has also launched a confidential IR35 telephone helpline - 0845 303 3535. As well as answering one-off queries, the helpline provides a review service. Staffed by IR35 specialists – all independent of the department’s compliance teams – HMRC say that they “will not pass on what you tell them to other people in HMRC”.

The specialists can review a contract and if they believe the contract is outside IR35, HMRC will issue a certificate with a unique number, valid for three years.

More details are available from the HMRC website.

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