HMRC has accepted the IR35 Forum’s recommendation to withdraw business entity tests (BETs), after the tests were found not to be helping customers due to limited use and not fulfilling their intended purpose. They will be withdrawn from 6 April 2015.
HMRC has accepted the IR35 Forum’s recommendation to withdraw business entity tests (BETs), after the tests were found not to be helping customers due to limited use and not fulfilling their intended purpose. They will be withdrawn from 6 April 2015.
The tests were introduced just two years ago as a way of helping individuals work out their risk of being investigated under the IR35 legislation, but have proved to be unfit for purpose.
The director of policy for the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) Simon McVicker greeted the announcement from HMRC, saying: ‘The BETs had the potential to bring real clarity to independent professionals working through their own limited companies. Instead, the tests were badly designed, poorly scored, and misused from the outset … I am therefore pleased to hear that they will finally be scrapped. They have created more uncertainty, not less, with clients especially in the public sector, wrongly using them to assess the tax status of contractors.’
HMRC has accepted the IR35 Forum’s recommendation to withdraw business entity tests (BETs), after the tests were found not to be helping customers due to limited use and not fulfilling their intended purpose. They will be withdrawn from 6 April 2015.
HMRC has accepted the IR35 Forum’s recommendation to withdraw business entity tests (BETs), after the tests were found not to be helping customers due to limited use and not fulfilling their intended purpose. They will be withdrawn from 6 April 2015.
The tests were introduced just two years ago as a way of helping individuals work out their risk of being investigated under the IR35 legislation, but have proved to be unfit for purpose.
The director of policy for the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) Simon McVicker greeted the announcement from HMRC, saying: ‘The BETs had the potential to bring real clarity to independent professionals working through their own limited companies. Instead, the tests were badly designed, poorly scored, and misused from the outset … I am therefore pleased to hear that they will finally be scrapped. They have created more uncertainty, not less, with clients especially in the public sector, wrongly using them to assess the tax status of contractors.’
