IT contractor website ContractorCalculator has just launched a new employment status test, designed to calculate within 10 minutes whether you will be covered by IR35 rules.
IR35 legislation, long bemoaned by contractors and consultants, was introduced to stop people (mainly freelancers and contractors) from taking income from their own Limited Companies as a small salary and large dividend instead of a normal PAYE and NI salary.
The HMRC already has its own online service, called the Employment Status Indicator (ESI) but Dave Chaplin, CEO of ContractorCalculator points out that their newer Employment Status Tool gives a far more in depth analysis:
“Our tool looks at the complete picture. That means it is based on cases HMRC loses, as well as those it wins. And, more importantly, it is based on cases that don’t ever get to court because they are ‘won’ at the investigation stage by IR35 specialists.”
