Draft legislative proposals to change how the UK’s “IR35” off-payroll working rules operate in the private sector would apply to contracts entered into or payments made on or after 6 Apr 2020. A consultation on the proposals published by the tax authority HMRC will close on 5 Sep 2019. The new rules would make private-sector organizations liable for determining the tax status of contractors who work through personal service companies (PSC) and ensuring payment of the correct amount of tax. A similar regime has applied to the public sector since 2017.
The government estimates that the proposals would impact 170,000 individuals who work through their own company, up to 60,000 private-sector organizations engaging workers through PSCs and 20,000 agencies that provide workers to medium and large-sized organizations.