It’s time to understand MOO
HMRC loses in the Upper Tribunal on mutuality of obligations point, and is now a binding judgement.
Fascinating case and there were plenty of reports and posts in the week.
Contractor Calculator shared this report highlighting that HMRC failed with the appeal to the Upper Tribunal (UT) in its case against the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), following a disastrous ruling for the taxman. And again here where they describe it as a “demolition job” on the taxman’s interpretation of mutuality of obligation (MOO), leaving HMRC with no choice but to appropriately address its flawed Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool. DeeDee Doke also shared this article on recruiter.co.uk, where they share that judges have called into question HM Revenue & Customs’ employment test of what constitutes a self-employed worker by rejecting an appeal by the government tax body.
Will this put an end to the flawed arguments used by HMRC to justify the omission of MOO from its Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool? Rebecca Seeley Harris opened up the debate on LinkedIn, check it out hereand share your thoughts.
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In, Out, In, Out, Shake It All About
Some interesting stats from HR Review who have reported that more than half of contractors who have been assessed and deemed to fall within IR35 by their clients are planning on working outside of the legislation due to the delay of it being implemented in 2021 due to COVID-19.
Research from Qdos, who offer insurance and tax advice for the self-employed found that 56 per cent of contractors who fall inside of the IR35 rules will now go back to working outside of it due to the delay. Just over a quarter (27 per cent) are not sure whether or not they will start working within or outside of IR35 and 17 per cent will not.
It highlights the crazy situation for those who have been “blanket-placed” inside IR35 (40 per cent), as a large amount of those contractors (32 per cent) have had this decision reversed by their client.
Tory MPs echo Lords’ IR35 reform concerns to Jesse Norman
ContractorUK this week reported that five influential MPs have echoed the Lords economic affairs committee’s concerns around IR35 reform to their fellow Conservative Jesse Norman, who last week shrugged them off.
Both in the House of Commons and in a video that he posted online, Sir John Redwood said he wanted to “urge” the Treasury minister to “think again about changing the rules on IR35”.
…and finally, something sensible
Anna Piatnoczka shared this interesting article on how banks should prepare for IR35 following the 12 month delay.
With the financial services industry being one of the largest employers of contractors, freelancers and interim managers, many banks and institutions can use the opportunity to re-evaluate how they engage with their contingent workforces
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