WHAT DO THE LATEST IR35 RULES MEAN?
The IR35 ‘off payroll’ public sector reforms were extended to the private sector from April 2021 onwards, following a delay due to COVID-19. These changes have seen the responsibility for determining whether an engagement falls within the IR35 rules move from the worker’s Personal Service Company (PSC) to the end user (including where PSCs are engaged via an agency).
If the engaging organisation deems that IR35 applies, the end user must apply PAYE/NIC on payments made to those PSCs if it pays them directly. Otherwise, the agency would be responsible for applying PAYE/NIC to those payments, based on the end user’s IR35 assessment.
While IR35 rules currently only apply to large and medium sized enterprises that engage contractors through PSCs, we expect to see them being phased in for small enterprises in future years.