Recent ‘outcry’ into limited company payment methods provided by the BBC has caused a cull of all freelance contracts. Are HMRC on their case?
With the ever increasing presence of IR35 evident within the contracting sector, corporations such as the BBC are mindful that the tax office is becoming progressively aware of the irregularities of high-profile freelance contracts.
It doesn’t take an expert to realise that many of the high-profile contractors on the BBC payroll do not exactly fit the Revenue’s description of a compliant service company, and recent news of the BBC’s plan to ‘phase out’ freelance contracts suggests that HMRC may have taken an interest into their throng of 6,000 freelancers.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘The BBC has developed a new employment test … that uses several criteria to determine whether an individual can be hired as self-employed or considered as an employee.
‘We will soon be in a position to begin applying this test.’
This ‘employment test’ sounds oh too familiar to UK contractors, the IR35 rules being something that limited company professionals should be very aware of.
The recent panic at the BBC to shun all contracts made via personal service companies hints that the Revenue may have taken an interest into the potential goldmine that is the corporation’s workforce.
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