IR35 petition launches against private sector reform

Consecutive months of various parties protesting against the public sector’s off-payroll rules potentially being extended to the private sector have been unified in the shape of a formal petition.

Launched since talk of the potential extension reached the mainstream press, the petition entitled ‘Do not extend IR35 legislation to the private sector’ will run for six months.

The Treasury could announce the extension as soon as next Wednesday, at Autumn Budget 2017, but all online petitions to the UK’s parliament run for six months as a minimum term.

“There is evidence that the Chancellor is planning to extend IR35 legislation to the private sector”, says the petition from Ian Michael Kendrick, which links to an article on the topic.

“[It may be] an attempt to equalise the payments and tax regimes between contractors and permanent employees [but] contractors take considerable risk… [and] and can be without work for weeks.”

The government will respond to the petition if it attracts 10,000 signatures, or consider a parliamentary debate if it attracts 100,000. Open until May, it currently has almost 7,000.