Autumn Budget brought a glimmer of hope that ‘LTD’ will be back in business in 2025-26, if only because the taxman’s new tanks are parked on the lawn of everybody else.
The cheered-on Covid Corruption Commissioner is set to back strictness for taxpayers and leniency for the taxman (not vice versa), as seen in Ark Angel Ltd v HMRC.
Nineteen ‘exceptional’ companies, six ‘highly commended’ providers, and two individuals. All just got acknowledged as going ‘the extra mile’ for UK IT contracting.
There’s no final bill or liability admission. But the Welsh government agency set up to sustainably manage the environment clearly didn’t manage off-payroll worker status properly.
Seven takeaways from the 15 month-coming ‘Mutuality’ case, where the final whistle on the referees’ status may still be pipped at the post by a rematch.
The latest public sector IR35 bill is pretty swingeing -- but the overall trend suggests public sector bodies are getting to grips with the OPW rules, after seven long years.
It’s clear HMRC has learnt from its enforcement work in the public sector, before HS2 and as a direct result of it. Don’t leave your own learnings to the last.
Supreme Court sides with the taxman by ruling that if there’s a contract, there’s mutual obligations -- thereby removing MoO as a future outside IR35 ‘battleground’.
Sky Sports rugby pundit tackled by the ‘growing trend of UT clashing with FTT on IR35,’ sidelining what happened -- in favour of the hypothetical contract.
Concerned for their wellbeing, Australia just gave employees a right to disconnect. Maybe the UK should do the same, but for its freelance consultants too.
Better outcomes, value for money, and improved prospects. That, at least, is the three-fold pledge of the chancellor’s now-underway rethink on retirement savings.
Delays, a reluctant Revenue, and extra work for contractor accountants -- all things that a frank impact assessment of hiking the tax return threshold should have said.
Taxman says seven avoidance schemes (all employment tax-related) should be avoided, even though contractors often have ‘little choice’ but to use them.
Two appeal faults in a row due to a chartered adviser’s mistakes mean we’ll now never know if the Sky tennis pundit’s IR35 status would have been called ‘in’ or ‘out.’
The only certainty of the ‘will-she-won’t-she’ pensions raid furore is the wisdom in maxing out your allowance now, while it remains generous and intact.
The end of 2025 is the first time contractors will get their day in court against HMRC and its 2007 legislation, ahead of a June 2026 ruling, and resolution by January 2030. Hopefully.
A sceptical agent’s Excel test is a sign of things to come -- but don’t take it personally, our job is to work out if what you say about your skills is true.
The Growth & Skills Levy is one of a few steps in the right direction. Ministers understanding not everyone’s a permie is key to avoid taking us back to square one.
Treasury exchequer secretary James Murray is the new broom to sweep away the wrongs of Lucy Frazer and her rotten Tory government. And 131 parliamentarians are there to see that he does exactly that.
Some 8.5million Windows devices with Blue Screen of Death reminds companies they can’t always know who they’ll need from IT, with what tech skills, or when.
Bolstering economic growth across the UK bodes well for IT freelancers -- we must now hope for differentiation, collaboration and frankly, more contract skills support.
‘Political noise’ blamed for hirers hitting the hiring brakes, with the screeching most painfully felt by IT operations, helpdesk, and software development candidates.
We’ve got an anti-Tory result with no great enthusiasm for Keir Starmer. That’s what the people are really saying - and it’s a verdict IT freelancers will find hard to disagree with.
As a new political dawn breaks, let’s not be rose-tinted about the future of IT contracting under the architects of IR35, but it’s clear a bum deal is now behind us.
Why Rachel Reeves saying ‘we will take on the tax dodgers’ sounds good in principle, but also has small companies quaking in their (HMRC-compliant) boots.
Signing a commonsense commitment (following this government’s nonsensical approach), is the first step to getting your future MP to do their bit to right a wrong ruining 40,000 lives.
Hays finds that despite many feeling apprehensive about AI, most IT contractors will undergo Artificial Intelligence training -- before it ‘really takes hold.’
Two highly technical grounds of appeal succeeding for the taxman don’t make the UT’s decision necessarily right, according to IR35 advisers who have no less than six misgivings.
