IR35 – Seeking Out Employment Relationships

With the new IR35 regime coming into force for medium and large companies in the private sector from April 2020, it is helpful for us to look at how the regime has been implemented and adjudicated on in the public sector, where it has been in force since 2017. The case of Paya Limited and others v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 0583 (TC) shows us that the application of the relevant tests to real-life scenarios can be extremely difficult. So much so, even the panel of the First Tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) could not come to a unanimous decision.

IR35 was introduced to prevent individuals from avoiding tax by providing their services through an intermediary, personal service company (PSC)...