Not every umbrella that underpays HMRC is doing the same thing wrong — and Joint & Several Liability doesn’t treat all three scenarios the same way. Nevertheless, ‘Can we trust it?’ is now the key brolly question being asked by contractors’ recruitment agencies and end-clients.

As the government moves to guarantee workers' hours, umbrella contractors and end-clients face an unexpected shake-up to the balance between flexibility, security and IR35 risk. Not that limited company contractors will mind much, says FCSA's head of strategic policy and advocacy Andy Chamberlain.

A thinning career ladder. A distorted labour market. Slower-growing businesses. And even reduced project budgets, leading to fewer external roles. Who says jobless, detached 18-24-year-olds aren’t a contractor’s problem, too?

Momentum is building for contracting — but government policy remains a barrier, as each bid to reduce risk over here seems to introduce new risks over there.

At last, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is here, not that limited companies should panic — even if it does demand some contractors’ attention, discipline, organisation, preparation, and understanding.

FCSA: With its legislative plate pretty full, the UK contractor sector must hope Rachel Reeves’ imminent statement lives up to its uneventful billing.

Despite one of its own MP’s best efforts, the government timetable for reform of employment status remains as vague as the rules themselves.

Where contractors in IT and other key sectors of the UK economy will want to be on the lookout in the year ahead.

A tempering of ambition with pragmatism. A shaping of policy with evidence. Both are hopefully signs of the Employment Rights Bill consultations to come.

A ‘win-at-all-costs’ taxman is concerning for those of us who champion contracting, especially given the spring in his step courtesy of the courts.

A new off-payroll working rules impact-assessment holds the HMRC line of not facing up to IR35’s damage.

A Managed Service Company update from the taxman highlights the need for a change to the 17-year-old legislation.

A seemingly small Autumn Budget announcement is actually a big concern, and it’s not even the nearly double-figure rate that’s unsettling.

For contractors and other taxpayers, even celebrities, the government's reach growing is (for once) something to get behind.

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.

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.

Not reinventing the wheel is fine for just 5% of the business community; for the remaining vast majority, it’ll just perpetuate abject unfairness.

Next time you hear the phrase the ‘party of business,’ you’d be forgiven for asking ‘which party is that then?’

HMRC no longer being free to continue on as a ‘non-ministerial department’ is important enough to warrant a place in our manifesto – IPSE.

IR35 is meant to deter disguised employment, not genuine freelancing, but something has gone badly wrong -- as Adams, Street-Porter and Moore are now finding out.