A CAMPAIGN SUCCESS: Government announces 12 month delay of the IR35 Off-Payroll Tax roll-out!
The Stop The Off-Payroll Tax campaign, the contracting sector campaign against the IR35 Off-Payroll Tax roll-out, has welcomed the news that the Government have tonight announced that the Government will delay the roll-out for 12 months, as campaigners, MPs and members of the Lords Economic Committee had been calling for.
The move was announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rt Hon. Steve Barclay MP in the House of Commons, as the budget resolutions, including the original proposal to push on with the roll-out in April, were introduced.
The decision was taken following huge pressure from campaigners with contractors and freelancers, without sick pay, facing loss of work due to the Covid-19 outbreak, something that makes ‘inside IR35’ and ‘zero rights employment’ particularly unfair and devastating.
The measure will still be brought in via this year’s Finance Bill, but will not now come into effect till April 2021, not 6th April this year, as had been proposed, despite the whole sector warning the Government of the huge damage the ill-considered measure will do.
So with a year’s delay, the Stop The Off-Payroll Tax campaign, having achieved one of the two main campaign aims, will be pushing for a genuine review over the next year – and for the Government to come up with a way to recognise contracting, freelancing and locum working in the tax system and ensuring tax law and employment law is properly aligned, to make ‘Zero Rights Employment’ illegal.
The campaign also believe that the IR35 rules should be suspended from the public sector, where they have caused staff shortages in the NHS, something that needs addressing to enable locum doctors and nurses to assist with the response to Covid-19. The Stop The Off-Payroll Tax campaign wants to see an complete overhaul of IR35 and proper recognition of contractors, freelancers and locum workers in public and private sectors in both tax law and employment law.
To sign up to be a free supporter of the Stop the Off-Payroll Tax campaign, campaigners just have to email campaign@stoptheoffpayrolltax.co.uk.
Commenting, Dave Chaplin, Director of the Stop The Off-Payroll Tax campaign and CEO of ContractorCalculator said:
“We warmly welcome the announcement that the Government has seen sense and delayed the damaging IR35 Off-Payroll Tax roll-out for a year. With contractors and freelancers facing losing work with no sick pay, it was clearly the right and sensible thing to do.
“We thank all the excellent campaigning by our 2600 campaigners and we thank all the MPs who raised their concerns with the Treasury and opposed the flawed policy.
“We now must keep pushing for changes to outlaw the disgrace of ‘Zero Rights Employment’ and to make it illegal for firms to push employer’s taxation onto contractors. We also must push for the genuine review of IR35 legislation promised by the previous Chancellor, as part of the Conservatives planned review into self-employment. Over the next year, it’s time to finally overhaul the discredited IR35 legislation, which everyone knows doesn’t work and to instead come up with a way to properly recognise contracting and freelancing in the tax system and ensure people are either classed as self-employed or are employees with full rights and benefits”.
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