The Finance Bill 2020 published on 11 July 2019 includes draft legislation to extend the public sector off-payroll working rules to large and medium-sized private sector companies with effect from 6 April 2020; consultation on the draft legislation closes on 5 September 2019. A summary of responses to the earlier consultation on the proposals, a policy paper and fact sheet have also been published, and the government has promised to publish further guidance this summer.
Employers will welcome the reassurance in the factsheet that "HMRC will focus on ensuring businesses comply with the reform for new engagements, rather than focusing on historic cases. HMRC will not carry out targeted campaigns into previous years when individuals start paying employment taxes under IR35 for the first time. Organisations’ decisions about whether workers are within the rules will not automatically trigger an enquiry into earlier years."
Our blog post discussing the reforms in more detail is available here.
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