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The 2017 and 2021 legislation changes saw amendments to the application of IR35, and whilst the IR35 tests themselves did not change, the entities responsible and liable for making an IR35 status decision have changed – where the client meets the HMRC definition of being a medium or large organisation.
The Contractor Compliance Portal lets businesses and contractors quickly and easily undertake a wide range of IR35 assessments, all for free and without the requirements for prior knowledge and understanding of IR35.
In the new IR35 ‘off-payroll’ way of working it’s vital that businesses are proactive and compliant in assessing the IR35 status of roles to get an inside or outside IR35 opinion before advertising them.
Correctly advertising the role after undergoing a thorough assessment process helps evidence the reasonable care requirement being met, and protects all parties in the supply chain.
However, using a role-based assessment alone to assess IR35 can be considered a form of blanket assessment, which is why the Contractor Compliance Portal doesn’t produce a SDS for a role-based assessment, just an opinion on its IR35 status.
Role-based assessments act as a template and starting point to undertake an engagement-based assessment, from which the SDS is generated – bringing efficiencies, removing dual keying of data, and making life simple for those setting up roles and assessing IR35 status.
Businesses can use the Contractor Compliance Portal to generate that all important SDS, and meet the ‘reasonable care’ compliance requirement in the process of doing so.
A role-based assessment is expanded upon to collect information online from all the relevant parties in the IR35 labour supply chain, allowing a precise IR35 determination and accompanying SDS and IR35 report to be produced.
If there is a dispute then there is a fully integrated process that allows the parties to manage and conclude it online, complete with an audit trail that is available as evidence when required.
For all outside IR35 engagements businesses can purchase IR35 insurance online in a matter of seconds or set it so this is automatically done, as the qualifying criteria is already met.
The insurance is purchased on a month by month basis, with no minimum period requirement, insures the engagement and all parties in it, and provides £100,000 of cover for both professional representation and any tax liabilities in the event of an HRMC IR35 investigation.
Are you a businesses looking to migrate to the Contractor Compliance Portal, or run it side by side an existing IR35 status determination system to insure existing & valid outside IR35 SDS’s?
If so, then you can quickly, easily and instantly insure your existing outside IR35 engagements by using the Contractor Compliance Portals External SDS Assessment functionality.
For each SDS the business just needs to answer a short version of the assessment question set and get a matching outside IR35 status opinion to qualify as eligible for the IR35 insurance, removing the need to complete full role-based and engagement-based assessments.
Note: Our IR35 insurance is only available via the Contractor Compliance Portal so businesses must use the system to access it.
Contractors often want a second opinion on an engagement, either as evidence for future use, to aid in an appeal, or just out of curiosity. Whatever is required the Contractor Compliance Portal allows an IR35 status opinion and accompanying IR35 report to be generated, downloaded and evidenced.
We’ve also made they system easy to use. With just a single user account contractors can assess their own IR35 status to get an inside or outside IR35 opinion, respond to and complete engagement-based assessments, and raise appeals against SDS’s.
A belt and braces approach to defending HMRC IR35 status enquiries is crucial in presenting the best defence. The Contractor Compliance Portal allows an assessment of the working practices to be formulated – which is what HMRC will focus and place most emphasis on, but they will also look into the written terms & conditions of the contract itself.
It’s extremely rare for a contract to be IR35 perfect, meaning there are areas that can be amended to improve and strengthen the IR35 position – providing they are genuine and implemented prior to the commencement of a contract.
Businesses can buy discounted contract reviews when logged in to the portal (via by our sister site Roots Contractor Insurance):
– Essential: £45.00 (inc of IPT). This comments and provides advice on the main IR35 clauses.
– Premium: £112.50 (inc of IPT). This comments and provides bespoke feedback on all IR35 clauses.
We also offer to speed up the standard 5 business day turnaround time for an additional fee.
