IR35 in the private sector Episode 2: The new laws from April 2020#AskAMS

IR35 in the private sector will be governed from April 2020, by a new law under which Clients (rather than Contractors) decide on the IR35 status of Contractors using the online HMRC ‘CEST’ tool.

New rules will come into effect in April 2020 affecting clients, agencies and contractors. End clients from large and medium size companies will have to make a decision on the IR35 status of their contractors. The client can use an online HMRC tool called CEST, to check the Employment Status for Tax and tell the agency whether they consider that the contractor is caught by IR35 or not. HMRC rolled out CEST to the public sector in 2017. It is currently being updated and being re-released before the new law goes live.