16 December 2021 
Julia Ascott, Employment Taxes Specialist
I know what you are thinking, you’ve read the title and thought, “well, tell us something we don’t know”. As a treat, I’ve been watching Finance Sub Committee meetings held in December on the subject of the off-payroll working rules. The highlight is the meeting held on 13 December where the committee members grilled representatives from the Treasury and HMRC on the problems with IR35, HMRC’s position and CEST tool, the unintended consequences (pushing people into umbrella companies) and the effect on the economy.
Lucy Frazer (the Treasury’s financial secretary) defended HMRC’s IR35 CEST tool but admitted that the 2017 rules had been ‘a little rushed’. They acknowledged that CEST typically provides a determination in 80% of cases but defended this statistic by stating that it would be impossible to create a tool that provided 100% determinations and included questions on mutuality of obligation without making the tool overly complex.
For anyone interested in how IR35/off-payroll working may develop over the next 5-10 years, it’s a must watch. You can watch the meeting on the UK parliament website.
