IT expert voices IR35 concern

Date: 9th March 2011

IT contractors and other self-employed workers could be among those interested in the recent comments of one expert lamenting the controversial IR35 tax legislation.

The rules, which were introduced in 2000 to crackdown on disguised employment, are currently being looked at as part of the Office for Tax Simplification's review of the small business tax system.

Gerry McLaughlin, of ITContractor.com, has described the legislation as "complex and ill-defined".

The expert compared the tax rule as the equivalent of the government using a "nail bomb" to target a problem that requires the accuracy of a "laser gun".

He commented: "The government produced complex and ill-defined legislation that caught a whole load of contractors in its net.

"Even the paymaster general at the time said that the legislation had caught many contractors that it hadn't been intended to catch. It wasn't just the contractor's way of working that defined it. A contractor could be IR35 liable on one contract and not on the next."

Posted by Emily Smith