Recruitment Agents not Fans of IR35

In a Nutshell

90% of recruiters think IR35 is ineffective

In a Sentence

Recruitment agents would like to see changes made to IR35 legislation to make it more than window dressing.

According to REC recruiters think;

• IR35 should remain as is: 3%
• IR35 should be scrapped: 50%
• IR35 should be clarified: 40%

For What it's Worth

This industry talking shop plan to put their findings to OTS (Office of Tax Simplification). Will it make any difference? Probably not, in the opinion of some, there is no single influential body that is taken seriously enough by HMRC. But then a little push by many individuals is certainly better than doing nothing at all.

IR35 is a noble attempt at countering what is officially known as disguised employment - effectively a means of paying less tax. Why doesn't the UK contingent workforce sector take a lesson or two from the City? They have proved time and again that there are legal, proven & untouchable ways of avoiding paying tax.

Ineffective but Nice

J Brooks, REC; "IR35 has been an awkward, unsatisfactory attempt to tackle the problem of disguised employment ever since it was set up in 1999. These survey results make it plain that the recruitment industry would not accept anything less than a serious overhaul of the current system.

"While many recruiters would be happiest to see IR35 simply removed from the statute book, there would also be support for a pragmatic attempt to clarify the rules. If contractors, employers and recruiters could be certain in advance whether they fall within IR35 or not, many of the current problems could be eliminated."