ANOTHER HMRC VICTORY SPELLS DISASTER FOR CONTRACTORS AND INDUSTRY

The sort of headline Umbrella companies thrive on.  And no one else.   The final nail in the outside IR35 coffin.  The straw that broke the camel’s back and led to the extinction of a flexible, agile talent pool that’s been the lifeblood of vital business change and transformation for decades.  If we all sit back and let it happen.  Fortunately it’s fake.  For now.  It’s the headline 34square was built to prevent. 

If you’re a contractor, you might have considered combining your limited company with a few others like you.  A possible substitution solution and perhaps even a route to getting half a dozen together so that you’re no longer a PSC.  But then how do you ensure you’re getting your fair share of the revenue?  Do you want to add the risk of carrying others not as dedicated or successful as you, to an already risky venture?

Now, for probably less than a £1 a week after tax, 34square enables contractors to virtually achieve scale way beyond your own PSC, without that additional risk.  And there’s a state-of-the-art substitution contract generation capability as part of its foundation, that’s ready to use or evidence your capability and intent, should you ever need to do either. 

Whilst we now provide a full Status Determination Statement service free of charge for clients, our original vision was to facilitate an outside IR35 tattoo on contractors’ foreheads.  If you have right of substitution in your contract and you aren’t a member yet, you may be inviting those headlines.  If you are a member, you’re going a very long way to ensuring your client never ends up in a tribunal on account of having engaged you.

A robust right of substitution along with an evidenceable capability and intent to carry it out, is still the firmest deterrent against a HMRC dispute.  Why?  Because their victory rate where right of substitution is weak or absent is in the region of a whopping 70%.  Their victory rate when it’s strong? Zero.  They have lost every single time they couldn’t dismantle the right of substitution.  That’s why they had to design their Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool such that the only singular route to an outside IR35 determination is a robust and compliant right of substitution.  It’s the law, on account of multiple case law precedents and the inescapable fact that it dispels any notion a personal service is in play.  It’s also why, in any dispute, they leave no stone unturned in their efforts to destroy it.  So, take the couple of minutes to subscribe with us, support our collective mission, make your right of substitution invulnerable and do your clients, industry and consequentially yourselves a solid.  Don’t let this headline creep into the news.