An Update from FW Accounting on George Osborne’s Autumn Statement 2012 and how it affects Contractors’ IR35 status from Mervyn Stanley of FW Accounting. If you missed it, you might be interested in the overview of the April 2012 Budget – you can check this out here
Mention of IR35
George Osborne made only one mention of IR35 in his Autumn Statement delivered earlier this week, to say that the 1999 legislation is sufficient to stop his attack in the last budget on ‘controlling persons’ from advancing. All but abandoning the proposal, which said a contractor who is a controlling person or office holder at their client outfit should be taxed at source, the chancellor said he would ‘not proceed’ with it, in light of the recent changes to IR35.
According Mr Osborne’s full statement, HMRC’s new approach to policing IR35 – chiefly the Business Entity Tests, along with measures introduced in the public sector – the off-payroll rules, are sufficient measures to tackle controlling persons. You can take the FW Accounting Business Entity Test to measure if you are Low Medium or High risk here.
Less positively though, the Treasury immediately advised that the government is strengthening the existing intermediaries legislation to put beyond doubt that it applies to office holders for tax purposes.
Whether that strengthening of IR35 relates to the recent administrative reforms by HMRC (inMay), or a new statutory amendment, is unclear – an HMRC spokesman referred questions to the Treasury, which declined to comment.
Regardless of its shape, the strengthening of IR35 was seized upon by industry experts as proof that not only is the legislation here to stay, but that also the government is content with the reforms it introduced, despite them still being on only a trial basis.
If you have any queries on how the Autumn Statement may affect you please do not hesitate to contact your Account Manager at FW Accounting, we are always happy to help with any query, big or small.
FW Accounting. You Count. We Count.
More Posts
Self Assessment – Q & A
Self-assessments. We have all heard of them, you maybe even know what they are. However, here at QAccounting some of our most frequently asked questions are about self-assessments. So below we have outline some of the most common questions we get asked, and the answers we get so tired of giving… just kidding.
Setting Up a Limited Company – 5 Key Things to Consider
If you are looking at going self-employed, then setting up as a Limited Company (LTD) may be the best option for you.
The Benefits of Having an Online Accountant
Here at QAccounting we are part of one of the UK’s largest contractor service providers. We started operating over a decade ago (around the same time DFS started their first sale) and have been dedicated to serving self-employed professionals ever since. One of the perks of choosing and accountant like QAccounting is that we offer all of our accounting services online.