“The critique was based upon advice we provided to ARC” says Ravi Murphy, client services director of Lawspeed, the specialist legal and compliance consultancy to the recruitment industry. “IR35 is an area upon which we have been advising since its inception 17 years ago. Back in year 2000, we applied our forensic approach to create not only the first IR35 friendly contracts, but also IR35 expenses insurance, and our contract terms went on to feature in the first reported contractor win against HMRC. These terms have been successfully used by literally thousands of contractors and agencies ever since.”
The critique was contained in a letter sent by ARC to MPs at the end of March in which ARC sought to persuade MPs that the proposed new IR35 measures, contained in the draft Finance Bill 2017, and the online tool that is linked to them, are not fit for purpose.
MPs have the opportunity to vote down that part of the Finance Bill on its consideration before Parliament. The purpose of the Treasury Select Committee, which is made up of Conservative, Labour and SNP backbenchers, is to examine expenditure, administration and policy of HM Treasury An enquiry into the IR35 rules had been planned to take place last week, with the ARC letter forming part of the evidence.
“We still apply the same ethos today as we did back in year 2000. We did our utmost to capture all relevant points for the letter, and await the decision of MPs following their review of the ARC evidence”, concluded Murphy.
