Tax & Accounting News

End in sight for IR35?

12/05/2010

The controversial IR35 legislation may be revised after the election, whoever wins power, according to a group which represents the freelancing community.

IR35 was introduced to tackle the perceived problem of ‘false’ self-employment – where people save tax by working as a contractor or freelancer, even though they are effectively doing an employee’s job at a single company. However, it has been criticised for the amount of extra paperwork and expense it creates for small businesses.

The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has had meetings with various political parties in the run-up to the election which it said had been ‘fruitful and productive’, leading it to believe some compromise on IR35 could be around the corner.

While most politicians have said it would not be possible to simply scrap IR35 without alternative measures to prevent false self-employment in its place, the PCG said it was hopeful a ‘fair and amicable’ solution could be reached.

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