18 March 2020
On our blog in October, we discussed the upcoming changes to the IR35 rules, and how these would potentially impact you from April 2020. In these unprecedented times, the Government has taken the decision to postpone the implementation of the new IR35 rules for the private sector for a year, until April 2021. They stress that this is a postponement rather than a cancellation, due to the impact of current Coronavirus pandemic, but this may however provide some respite for contractors who were faced with difficult choices to make next month, or those who may find their income streams drying up. We will have to wait to see whether or not a decision is made in the future to put a stop to the changes altogether, but no doubt many businesses will welcome this news. Some larger companies who are the ‘end user’ in the supply chain may decide that they have made too many changes to their procedures for them to simply ignore what they now have in place, but clearly, the Government is keen to make things easier for contractors caught by the changes, by giving more time by putting back the start date of the new rules. It’s therefore hoped that end users will also embrace these changes in view of the global issues being faced. This article, published in Accountancy Daily, gives a summary of the position. If you’d like to discuss the impact of this for you and your business, please do get in touch with your usual Haines Watts contact, or you can telephone or email Ian Haynes, our Tax Director. We are keeping you as up-to-date as possible on our Twitter and LinkedIn pages during these uncertain times and have posted some links to relevant governing bodies for support.
