Treasury Collects £1bn from Contractor Loan Charge

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury this week confirmed that HMRC has collected £1bn from the loan charge, with most of the money coming from contractor employers.

Answering questions in parliament, Mel Stride said that 85% of the £1bn so far collected came from employers. He added that the average salary of the employees impacted was double the national average.

Taking effect this tax year, the loan charge is levied on contractors involved with one type of disguised remuneration scheme.

 

Balfour, Vodafone and Others Suspended from Prompt Payment Code

An organisation acting on behalf of the government has cracked down on late paying large businesses this week, suspending 12 firms from a voluntary punctual payment code.

The list of firms includes several construction giants Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke, Interserve, Costain and Persimmon.

Majority of Public Sector Contractors Ruled Inside IR35

Ahead of reforms to private sector IR35 rules, new research shows that several public sector organisations are, in the majority of cases, judging contractors to be inside IR35.

Since 2017, public bodies have been responsible for deciding whether a contractor is truly self-employed or whether they should be taxed as if they were an employee of the firm.

The rules apply to limited company contractors who, before the rule change, were responsible for judging their own IR35 status.

From April 2020, the same reforms will be introduced in the private sector, so that organisations with 50 or more employees will be responsible for judging a contractor’s IR35 status.