Blog

'IR35’* the name of the legislation around how contractors and freelancers are paid has been mentioned in hushed tones for some time and from April 6 2020 will be implemented by HMRC resulting in major changes for thousands across the UK. 

The nature of SMEs means that many of them began life in the owner's garage or spare bedroom so whoever is registering the company will enter the home address as the correspondence address (even though it states this will be publicly displayed).

Following a recent routine compliance check by HMRC, a client who is a full-time farmer was asked for detailed breakdown and proof of expenditure on a range of large and small transactions across his business.  Upon submission, HMRC then sought receipts for the purchase of livestock and maintenance work carried out at the client’s farm in the previous six months.  As he had paid for both by cheque, he had to request copies of both cheques from his bank, which was still not deemed sufficient evidence of expenditure by HMRC.   By the end of the review, the client’s tax liability was only £180, yet the time spent on to-ing and fro-ing between HMRC and the client amounted to almost £2,000 in professional fees! This is not an unusual occurrence unfortunately and with the roll out of making tax digital, it is likely that additional intense scrutiny of small business accounts will only become more frequent.