• Applying HMRC guidance on determining status • Seeking the advice of a qualified, professional advisor • Having someone with a good understanding of the work to be undertaken involved in the determination process • Checking existing individual determinations to ensure they remain valid / accurate. • Reviewing the processes being applied and amending for future determinations where necessary • If there are any material changes to a worker’s terms and conditions, or working practices, making a new status determination • Ensuring the checking and reviewing of processes of other parties where the determination process is subcontracted to another party. The client remains responsible for the accuracy of the SDS even if it subcontracts that responsibility to another party
Examples of behaviours which do not display ‘reasonable care’ are:
• Determining that every worker who provides their services through an intermediary is caught by the off-payroll working rules without giving any consideration to the specific facts of each individual case • Determining that the off-payroll working rules apply to a large group of workers who have some variations between the work that is being carried out, without giving proper consideration to the different working arrangements for each worker • Failing to reconsider determinations where there has been a material change in circumstances • An absence of any proper support or training within the organisation to enable those individuals responsible for making determinations to properly consider the off-payroll working rules • Inputting inaccurate information into CEST • Failing to take into account all relevant evidence • The person tasked with completing the SDS does not possess the knowledge required to complete it and is not provided with the required level of support • The client subcontracts the SDS process to another party and does not confirm the accuracy of that conclusion and the reasons for it There is the note for consideration that a client can make a determination for a group of workers on the proviso that they are engaged under the same terms and conditions, but where these differ, separate determinations need to be made.
There are some illustrative examples on the classification of what would be ‘reasonable care’ and what wouldn’t, within the guidance.
CIPP comment
The guidance is still in its draft form at the time of writing, so if you have any feedback in relation to the content of the guidance to accompany the IR35 reforms, particularly on the area of ‘reasonable care’, then please get in touch with Samantha Mann at Samantha.mann@cipp.org.uk.
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HMRC publishes Employment status factsheet 17 February 2020
HMRC has published an Employment status factsheet, which has been designed with the aim of assisting individuals in assessing whether their employment status is correct or not.
The publication advises that employment status is the term used by HMRC to establish whether someone is classed as being either employed or self-employed. It confirms that employment status can affect an individual’s entitlement to benefits and equally, their employment rights.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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