IR35 and the Finance Bill

At the weekend the Chancellor said that officials will not be ‘heavy handed’ in enforcing law for first year. Yesterday, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman MP, made a Written Ministerial Statement explaining that the Finance Bill will be published on 19th March. The statement referred to the “Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1968” which suggests that the bill will not be enacted by 6 April. It also states that: “The Government remains committed to legislating those measures published in July 2019, subject to confirmation at Budget 2020”.

So it appears that those wishing for a delay in the off-payrolling changes will be disappointed and there will be little time between the legislation being published and the 6 April implementation date. Consequently the government's review of the implementation of these changes needs to be published urgently to help resolve the differences between the draft legislation and the guidance published by HMRC.

Let us also hope that there will be a commitment to ensuring the HMRC guidance matches the final legislation.