IR35 is the United Kingdom's anti-avoidance tax legislation, the intermediaries legislation contained in Chapter 8 of Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003. The legislation is designed to tax 'disguised' employment at a rate similar to employment. In this context, "disguised employees" means workers who receive payments from a client via an intermediary, i.e. their own limited company, and whose relationship with their client is such that had they been paid directly they would be employees of the client.
Under Chapter 8, the worker of the limited company is responsible for assessing their IR35 status under the rules and paying the appropriate National Insurance and Income Tax to HMRC.
New legislation was introduced on 6 April 2017 (Chapter 10 Income Tax (Earnings & Pensions) Act 2003) to make public sector organisations responsible for assessing whether an individual providing services for their organisation on a contract basis fell under IR35 rules, and for paying the National Insurance and Income tax to HMRC where relevant.[1]
These rules (referred to as the off-payroll working rules) were extended to apply to private sector businesses that were classed as medium or large per the Companies Act 2006 as of 6 April 2021. This led to some lorry drivers deciding to retire, and thus contributed to the shortfall of lorry drivers in the UK.[2]
In the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget it was announced that the 2017 and 2021 reforms to IR35 would be repealed, at a cost of £6.19 billion over 5 years.[3][4] On 17 October 2022 however, the newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, announced that the repeal would not go ahead and Chapter 10 would remain in place.[5]