Information Technology Recruitment

HMRC is taking it’s policing of IR35 very seriously, with many end clients and contractor’s PSCs receiving letters pre-empting further investigation by HMRC into the status of contract – are they genuinely outside IR35?

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote a blog about the repeal of the off-payroll rules for IR35 (https://www.gsatechsource.com/blog/2022/09/ir35-repealed ) I have left it this long to write a follow-up just to be sure there are no more u-turns before I do. Clearly, there aren’t, the repeal of the repeal stands, and we are back to the old, flakey, poorly implemented off-payroll rules for both the public and private sectors. The vague and inaccurate CEST tool remains, the determination decision remains with the end client (except for SMEs in the private sector) and what really constitutes employment as a contractor is still not clear. What needs to happen now is a full review of IR35, what is employment, and what is a contract role so all in the supply chain are clear where they stand. There must be no need for a user of contract resource to deem everyone inside the off-payroll rules simply due to the level of risk being unknown when doing otherwise (just look at the vast fines handed down to the government’s own departments – if they can’t get it right, then what hope do other organisations have?) The speed of the u-turns following the Truss / Kwarteng mini budget were lightning fast, but I won’t hold my breath for seeing a review anytime soon. I just hope I am proved wrong.

In January 2022, the government announced that, from 6 April this year, employers would be allowed to continue conducting remote Right to Work and criminal record identity checks, providing they used certified Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) supplied by a Digital Identity Service Provider (IDSP). The government has since launched a ‘trust mark’ scheme – the Digital Identity Certification Scheme (DICS) – to help employers identify those digital identity providers, which meet standards set out in the government’s Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF). GSA has now partnered with Yoti, a well established (2014), fully certified IDSP and experienced provider, with over 12 million app downloads. There are alternatives to using the IDSP’s digital right to work checking services for those whose situation requires an alternative method: -Using the online Employer Checking Service (https://www.gov.uk/employee-immigration-employment-status), to electronically check whether applicants are legally allowed to work in the UK. This service is only open, however, to eligible individuals with EU, EEA, or Swiss immigration status who can provide a valid share code, obtained from the Home Office. -Conducting a manual document check using original documents from Lists A or B of the Home Office’s list of acceptable documents to ensure that the documents are genuine, and that the employee is the rightful holder and permitted to do the type of work on offer. Choosing this option requires employers to make clear copies of original documents, which must be retained in a format that cannot be manually doctored, and viewed in person. However, for anyone with a UK or Irish passport, the quickest and most secure way for GSA to check the right to work is with Yoti, all done via a mobile device or PC with a simply URL link.