UK off-payroll working rules
IR35, explained without the hedging
IR35 decides whether a contract is taxed like a business engagement or like employment. It has reshaped how UK contract hiring works — and it is where most of the confusion between contractors, agencies and clients now sits. Here is how it actually operates, and how we handle it.
The short version
Who decides, and what changes
The client determines status
For medium and large private-sector clients and all public authorities, the end client is responsible for deciding whether a contract sits inside or outside IR35, and for issuing a Status Determination Statement. Small companies are exempt, and the contractor’s own limited company remains responsible for the assessment.
Inside scope
The engagement is treated as employment for tax. Income tax and employee National Insurance are deducted at source by the fee-payer, usually the agency. You do not gain employment rights from this — the tax treatment and the employment status are separate questions, which is the part most people find unreasonable.
Outside scope
The engagement is a genuine business-to-business contract. Your limited company is paid gross and handles its own tax. The determination has to be defensible against the working practices as they actually happen, not just the wording of the contract.
What the assessment looks at
The factors that decide it
No single factor settles a determination. HMRC and the tribunals look at the overall picture, weighted heavily towards the first three.
Control
How much say the client has over what you do, when, where and how. A contractor who is directed like an employee looks like an employee to HMRC.
Substitution
Whether you could send an equally qualified substitute in your place. A genuine, unfettered right of substitution points strongly towards outside scope.
Mutuality of obligation
Whether the client is obliged to offer work and you are obliged to accept it. A rolling expectation of continuous work looks like employment.
Part and parcel
Whether you are integrated into the organisation — line management, appraisals, company benefits, an internal job title — or engaged to deliver a defined piece of work.
Financial risk
Whether you carry genuine business risk: fixing defects at your own cost, providing your own equipment, being paid on deliverables rather than time.
Exclusivity
Whether you are free to work for other clients at the same time, and whether you actually do.
How we handle it
Status is settled before the role goes out
The most common complaint we hear from contractors is finding out a role is inside scope after investing time in the process. That is a process failure, and it is avoidable.
- We assess status before a role is advertised, not after you have accepted it.
- The status determination and the reasoning behind it are shared with you in writing.
- Inside-scope roles are advertised as inside scope, with the rate stated on the correct basis.
- We tell clients when a role they have described as outside scope probably is not.
- Every placement keeps an audit-ready record of the determination and the working practices behind it.
General information, not tax advice
This page describes how the off-payroll rules generally work. It is not tax or legal advice, and it cannot account for the specifics of your contract or company. For a determination you can rely on, speak to a qualified accountant or tax adviser — and to us about the specific role.
Questions about a specific contract?
Our UK team assesses status on every contract role we handle. Ask us about one before you commit time to a process.