IR35 Forum minutes published

06 July 2018

The minutes recently published for the meeting held on 10 May 2018.

HMRC have also published a paper which seeks to clarify HMRC’s views on Mutuality of Obligation (MOO). This follows on from the Forum meeting of11 December where HMRC noted claims in contractor bulletins and at roundtable discussions, that MOO is omitted from the Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) service.

“CEST does not explicitly look at MOO, it is designed to determine whether an existing or future contract will be one of employment or self-employment. It is assumed that a person using CEST will have already established MOO, which is necessary for a contract to exist, otherwise, there would be no need to be using CEST to determine the status of the existing or hypothetical contract.  

Some commentators in the press and some members of the forum have suggested this approach to MOO is flawed. HMRC has therefore provided it’s considered a response to questions raised at the IR35 Forum regarding “mutuality of obligation” as part of the “irreducible minimum” of a contract of service.”

The IR35 Forum is conducted in line with the published principles for the Employment and Payroll Group as set out in its terms of reference and has nominated one external member to attend the Employment and Payroll Group as its representative.

CIPP comment

The next meeting of the IR35 forum is scheduled for 30 August. If you have any agenda subjects that you would like to put forward to the CIPP Policy representative Samantha Mann, please email us by Monday 30 July 2018. 

Thank you