If your consultancy hires contractors, your responsibility no longer ends with hiring the right person for the job and showing them where the kettle is. As well as finding star short term recruits, onboarding them to your projects, and helping them to achieve greatness for the time that they’re with your firm, you’ll now also have to investigate and act upon their levels of tax compliance. 

As of April 2017, the government is making changes to IR35 tax regulations that mean consultancies who hire contractors for public sector work will need to assess the employment status and working practices of any freelancer they take on, and decide whether to operate PAYE tax. And it’s no small task.

Thankfully, Metis has produced an in-depth white paper giving you the lowdown on everything you need to know about IR35 – why it’s happening, what you’re required to do, and what it really means for the day to day reality of your consultancy business. We’ve included comprehensive interviews with Oliver Weiss, Senior Associate with Blake Morgan Solicitors, and Terry Baldwin, Chartered Accountant and Tax Adviser at McBrides Chartered Accountants; with their help, we examine: 

• How IR35 aims to combat perceived tax avoidance
• The process consultancies need to follow to evaluate their contractors
• Potential impact for firms on their time and resources
• Penalties and consequences for incorrect categorisation
• How the freelancing landscape will be affected long term 

As a result of these changes to IR35, it’s likely that your arrangements with both new and existing contractors will be affected. Discussions will need to be had, and decisions made, as to whether you operate PAYE across the board, compensate contractors for their reduction in earnings, or look outside of the public sector for future contracts. Downloading our white paper will help you to navigate these difficult choices and ensure that you are still able to utilise temporary consultants without permanent damage to your practice and your contractor relationships.

The informative and thought-provoking guide, entitled ‘How will IR35 tax regulations affect your consultancy?’ is free to download at the following link: http://resources.getmetis.com/metis-insights-ir35

Don’t be on the back foot when it comes to changing tax compliance – download the white paper now and join the IR35 discussion. 

Freelancing is changing – prepare your consultancy for IR35 with Metis

Metis was built by a small team of entrepreneurs who have founded, grown and sold companies like yours. We know what it’s like to manage all stages - from when there are just two of you, to when you’re dealing with hundreds of people in multiple teams. Metis is the distillation of the lessons we have learned along the way. Our mission is to make businesses like yours more successful. If you’d like to hear more about how we can help, get in touch.