Will autumn budget extend IR35 reforms into private sector?
03 November 2017
The CIPD has reported that the treasury has dropped its strongest hint yet that IR35 rules governing how freelancers and contractors are taxed in the public sector could soon be extended to cover the private sector.
The CIPD reports that the financial secretary to the treasury, Mel Stride, told the Financial Times that his department was considering reforms, adding: “It is not just the issue of tax that we might not be collecting that we should be collecting, it is also an issue of fairness between the public and private sector.”
Apparently he declined to outline specific plans to extend the reforms to the private sector, or to confirm whether they would form part of the budget, but did suggest that the government would not be unduly deterred by opposition from employers.
Mark Groom, partner at Deloitte, said the treasury might launch a consultation on the matter in the budget, but he did not expect it to implement any new measures until April 2020.
Read more from the CIPD on this topic.
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CIPP comment Government will publish its next budget on Wednesday 22 November 2017. The Policy team will as usual be providing coverage via twitter throughout Philip Hammond’s speech so be sure to tune in on the day #AutumnBudget2017. And we will also provide our concise summary of relevant announcements after the event which will be published on the news page of our website. |