How will recruitment businesses be affected, and what can you do to prepare?
IR35 applies:
Within the public sector, HMRC treats payments made from the hirer as earnings and subject to PAYE deduction. As to the private sector, the current liability to pay tax and national insurance contributions falls with the PSC and not the client/hirer who receive services.
As from 6 April 2020, within the private sector it will be the client/hirer that will decide whether the relationship with the worker or their PSC is one of employment. The client/hirer will be obliged to take reasonable care when determining the status of the relationship. The fee payer will be bound by the decision concerning status made by the client/hirer.
This may lead to disagreements where the worker wishes to provide services through the PSC as a contractor and does not want to work under a PAYE arrangement. This may in turn cause recruitment issues.
The new off payroll rules will only apply to medium and large private sector clients from 6 April 2020.
Smaller private sector organisations will not be subject to the new rules if:
The government is to legislate to require the client/hirer to pass details of its status determination and reasons for the determination down the contractual chain as well as passing directly to the worker. Failure to do so will result in the client/hirer being treated as the fee payer and primarily liable for unpaid taxes.
HMRC has stated that where it does not receive the tax due then liability should initially rest with the party that has failed to fulfil its obligations until such time as it does meet those obligations.
Employment businesses who are providing temporary workers through a PSC to a client/hirer need to make sure that they: