The controversial loan charge, which affects contractors who participated in ‘disguised remuneration’ schemes, could be scrapped after Chancellor Sajid Javid commissioned an official review into the tax.

The new review will conclude by mid-November to give taxpayers certainty ahead of the January Self Assessment deadline. It will be led by Amyas Morse, the former chief executive of the National Audit Office.

HMRC has sent a letter to around 1,500 GlaxoSmithKline contractors accusing them of being ‘disguised employees’ and ordering them to pay more tax under IR35 rules.

As the taxman ramps up the aggressive campaign against contractors, the letter was reportedly sent to contractors in different departments at the multinational pharmaceutical company.

HMRC’s letter says that in the 2018/19 tax year, their “view is that the contract between your PSC and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) comes under the off-payroll working rules ‘IR35’.”

When private sector organisations are charged with judging a contractor’s IR35 status from April 2020, more limited company contractors are likely to be classified as ‘inside IR35’.

To prevent paying more tax, contractors should take steps now to ensure compliance in the future.

In this blog post, we detail a few of the things you can do to give yourself the best chance of avoiding an inside IR35 judgement.

Boris Johnson has won the tentative support of contractor and freelancer organisations, but experts have urged the new PM to improve the economy and support the self-employed.

The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) called on the Brexit-supporting leader to keep the economy flexible and competitive in the run up to Britain’s exit from the EU.

In a statement, they called on Mr Johnson to reform the tax system and scrap damaging changes to IR35, reduce the retrospective nature of the loan charge and help stamp out late payments among other policies.