Employment Agencies
 

Mr Osborne has just said that the Government is going to clamp down on 'Employment Agencies' who ensure their 'contractors' are 'self employed' as part of the Agencies efforts to avoid paying their social taxes, national insurance etc. he called it 'false employment'.

This will presumably concern anyone employed by one of these awful agencies working for any equally squalid employer.

Except legally, the people liable are not the "contractors" but the "agencies" thankfully!

….and this is why the recent surge in 'new' contracts forcing the so-called 'self-employed' to now form a 'limited' company, albeit one man. This will allow the claim that it is the Ltd. company that employs the solo man, and that it is the Ltd. company that is contracted by the agency to supply a pilot. Thus it is the Ltd. which would be at risk, but that equals the pilot. The agencies think it will insulate them against any claims. Will that in fact be true?

RAT5 - correct. It's not the agencies that the government will be targeting, rather the limited company contractor. In the last year IR35 enquiries conducted by HMRC have quadrupled.