IR35

The off-payroll working rules, formally known as IR35, aim to ensure that workers who operate through their own personal service company (PSC) pay broadly the same amount of tax and national insurance as they would if they were employed. HM Revenue and Customs introduced reforms to the rules for the public sector in 2017, and for the private sector in 2020, meaning it was the contractor’s client’s responsibility to establish whether the worker should be treated as a worker for tax purposes. If they should, it was the client’s obligation to pay income tax and national insurance as if they were an employee.