joey wrote:
Not quite so. Firstly, there still are some circumstances where status determination and responsibility lies solely with the contractor (e.g. if you are contracting with a small company where turnover and/or number of staff is beneath some threshold, can’t remember the figure off the top of my head).
Maybe, but the vast majority of contracts are with large organisations
Secondly, in the other circumstances — where status determination has moved to the end client — responsibility is actually joint between the client and contractor. Therefore any errors in tax and NI are considered the joint responsibility of both parties.
Ah, didn't know that, but the point is it's not the contract that matters it's how you work, and are seen day in day out to be working, that matters. You have to live it, not just tick a few contractual boxes. At least now the client has a vested interest in ensuring you do which is precisely why they don't offer these contracts very much anymore. The investigating inspectors will interview people from the client organisation and if it emerges that you clocked in at 9 out at 5, hour for lunch, drinks with the team on Friday, and your work is indistinguishable from anyone else's, then you my friend were part of the team and should have been PAYE all along. Here's my bill, have a good day.
HMRC have recently begun compliance checks in the finance and (I think) O&G sectors so I imagine we’ll start to see what that means in practise soon enough.
There'll be some rich pickings there I suspect.