Last night the government escalates the coronavirus measures to assist contractors and freelancers by postponing the very much controversial reforms to the IR35 tax rules until April 2021.

Although there were many calls for the reforms to be scrapped altogether it would appear that this will be no more than a delay as they restated the need to address the fundamental unfairness surrounding non compliance with the current rules.

Mr Steve Barclay said in the House of Commons: “I can also this evening announce the government is postponing the reforms to the off-payroll working rules, IR35, from April 2020 to April 6, 2021.

“This is a deferral in response to the ongoing spread of Covid-19 to help businesses and individuals.

“This is a deferral not a cancellation and the government remains committed to reintroducing this policy to ensure people working like employees but through their own limited company pay the same tax as those employed directly.”

What to do next

If you were previously affected by the new IR35 rules coming in April it may well be worth contacting your customers and reanalysing your position to see if there is the option to continue your existing setup for another 12 months.

Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to fire back a reply and your usual account manager will get back to you.

All the best

The middlers team