Are you ready for IR35?

As we approach April 2021, there are more articles and coverage about the upcoming Private Sector IR35 changes.

As the Head of Client Engagement at Stoneseed, this topic keeps getting raised in our discussions with organisations in the Private Sector, that are looking for Project resources.

Many organisations would have been prepared for the changes to take effect last year, but because of the COVID pandemic these plans were delayed, and the date was pushed to April 2021. We have been talking with a few of our customers who are getting ready for IR35, to help them try to plan their resources.

According to a poll we conducted on Twitter, 54% of organisations are not ready for the impending changes. This result reflects a report by QDOS who commented that ‘As of December 2020, 57% of contractors said they had not received any communication from their end client regarding their IR35 reform preparations.’

A lot of people are ready but many are still scrabbling to put things into place.

So, the question is – Is your organisation ready?

If you’re looking to make sure you’ve done everything you need then; I’ve got a few points you can check off - Steps that should have been taken in order to be compliant with the changes:

? Establish if you qualify for Small Business exemption, Small Businesses are outside the scope of the new legislation.

? Current labour supply chains and workforce need to be identified and where tax liability sits in each scenario.

? Frequent client/supplier discussions should be taking place at this time; suppliers will be anxious about their own risk.

? Perform high-level assessment of existing workforce - Identify important contract roles and impact of rate increases.

These are just some of the steps your organisation should have actioned so if you’ve answered no to even one of these, why not check out our IR35 Planning guide – https://www.stoneseed.co.uk/brochure-forms-ir35-planning-guide

Stoneseed has also put together a video presentation that can aid you in understanding the impact the new legislation will have on your organisation. The presentation also talks about how you can use Stoneseed’s PMaaS to support your IT Project Management Resources. You can give it a listen here - https://www.stoneseed.co.uk/stoneseed-project-management-as-a-service/pmaas-ir35