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Contractor loan demands: Is W28 playing litigation roulette?
Why now, why all at once — and will Trethowans really take contractors to court after 27 October?
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News & HMRC
Budgets, HMRC moves and the contracting market. 3,087 articles, newest first.
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Sean’s Story: He settled his contractor loans. Then they were sold for about £10. Now he’s being chased for £131,000
A contractor who settled historic loans for £1,994 is now being pursued for £131,000 after the settled debt was apparently sold to West 28th Street.
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Contractors warned as HMRC petitions to wind up ‘FCSA umbrella’ MyPay
FCSA has expelled MyPay after HMRC’s winding-up petition, but the umbrella still claims accreditation. An ex-HMRC inspector says steer clear, the REC urges caution, and…
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As JSL squeezes small umbrella companies, Healey must act
HMRC reckoned no other impacts of JSL had been identified. Compliant small umbrellas squeezed off agency PSLs tell a different story, as does the growing number of live…
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Healey’s Budget 2026 to-do list for IT contractor hiring
Robert Walters’ Jason King sets chancellor John Healey three Budget 2026 tasks to boost IT contractor hiring: fund AI skills, speed up security clearance and increase…
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Contracting Awards 2026 winners: 2025’s victors refuse to let go
Winners and judges react after the 2026 Contracting Awards in London, where several of last year’s victors successfully defended their titles, the first AI award was…
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Autumn Budget 2026: 10 predictions for UK contractors
Don’t expect an IR35 rewrite on October 28th, say SG Accounting and Bright Ideas. Instead, brace for a tech-led HMRC (Caroola), a small business squeeze (Beansprout), an…
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Is HMRC ‘cruelly seeking to transfer debts’ to MSC contractors?
With Churchill Knight’s tribunal due in November and one contractor facing an alleged £52,700 bill, a former HMRC specialist tests the ‘cruel’ claim, in a world of…
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IT contractor demand climbed in August 2026 to 40-month high
Four recruiters endorse the REC’s best IT contractor figures in over three years. VIQU IT and Robert Walters see firms investing in tech; Reed says hiring managers are…
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Luke’s Story: “I knew it was a loan. But they changed the rules.”
Many contractors knew that loans formed part of their remuneration arrangements. But are the debts being pursued today governed by the rules they actually agreed to?
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I registered my company with my home address. Whoops. Here's what Companies House shows the world about you
Setting up a limited company? Your home address could end up rather more public than you bargained for. From junk mail and identity theft to keeping home and business…
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The Tories’ three IR35 replacement options — but contractors are right to be sceptical
IPSE’s Josh Toovey was in the room when Andrew Griffith MP pledged to ‘replace, not reform’ IR35. Here, exclusively for ContractorUK, he sets out the three IR35 models…
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Conservatives to replace IR35 outright, Griffith vows — advisers who met him reveal what it should contain
Andrew Griffith says the next Conservative government will wholesale replace IR35. Two advisers who met him tell ContractorUK what they now want to see — others call it…
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HMRC’s tax calculation errors: why contractors must check their bill now
Contractors moving between PSC and umbrella arrangements face a higher risk of HMRC's tax calculation gaffe. Carl Bridges of Caroola Accountancy explains what the tech…
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HMRC names 12 loan charge-type schemes, one with ‘Tardis’ clause
A new ‘dodgy’ dozen has joined HMRC's avoidance blacklist, which features an offshore trust with a self-voiding clause, three updates to the previously ‘named and shamed…
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Inside IR35 contractors as zero-hours reform victims is why Kate Dearden must meet us
The FCSA’s Andy Chamberlain reveals why DBT’s plans could see inside IR35 contractors' assignments cut short and umbrella companies handed guaranteed-hours obligations…
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HMRC leaves 37,000 contractors’ nil-liability question in the air
A slick new HMRC video and detailed policy paper promise clarity and straightforwardness for McCann loan charge settlers. Ten questions from ContractorUK going…
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Pay 2% to protect a ‘loan’. Settle it for 1–2%? The contractor debt mystery deepens
Contractors were offered protection from historic loans for a fraction of their face value. Years later, some of those loans were reportedly settled for similarly tiny…
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52 contractors told us what they think of Andy Burnham. Basically: not much, yet.
From IR35 and tax admin to ‘business-friendly socialism,’ 52 contractors and small business owners give their early verdict on Andy Burnham, with 25 already negative and…
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Budget 2026: what UK housing needs (and doesn’t)
From 1% deposits to 6.5x multipliers even on ‘fractional’ income, here's how contractor mortgages are already changing pre-Budget 2026 — and the one wish, and one worry,…
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Who the hell is Ethica Resolve — and is it ethical?
A new name has appeared in the long-running contractor loan saga. It promises financial wellness, claims to have thousands of staff, and says it helps customers become…
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Data Kraken v Torry Harris: 5 lessons for software developer contractors
From ‘permitted purpose’ clauses to ‘flow down’ obligations, a live High Court case triggered by ‘unusual email alerts’ and centring on a displaced software supplier…
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Loan Recall Case Study: Amanda
Amanda worked for eight weeks in 2016. She is now 63, retired and a grandmother of six — and almost a decade later, she is still being told that some of the money she…
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How IR35 inflated an £8.5bn consultancy bill — and tests Burnham at the Budget
There’s a slow tightening of the screw on the self-employed that might as well have eight consultancy giants at the handle end, and government policy as the torque. The…