With renewed focus by HMRC on the financial benefits enjoyed by freelance contractors, unless you are clearly seen to be operating as a genuine business ‘in business’ you may well suffer financially from the negative impact of IR35 legislation. We help you meet your ‘being truly in business’ requirements. Any evidence you can provide to point towards you being in business will clearly help towards securing ‘outside IR35’ contracts.
We provide you with a professional business website and business email which immediately sets you apart by demonstrating your Ltd Company really is operating as a true business. Marketing your business is more important then ever, and along with the website and business email we help you with your Linkedin profile and company page, all of which will give further indicators that you are a contractor in business.
As a director, you are responsible for doing all that you can to ensure your business is successful, which in the case of a contractor, means securing contracts. By marketing your business, not only will you be demonstrating you are doing all you can to be successful, but you will naturally be widening the gap between being seen as a ‘true business’ and an employee. Financial investment in marketing your business is therefore essential.
Finding a substitute to meet your substitution clause in your contract is also made much easier for you as membership includes the unique Contractor Substitution Network Membership giving contractors easy, secure access to a large UK network of contractors with similar expertise who they can contact when a substitute is required. This helps contractors meet the substitution clause in their contract, allowing them to easily demonstrate that a substitute can be found if necessary.
There are several key steps that contractors can take which can help provide tangible evidence that they are genuinely “in business” and not merely disguised employees, beyond the obligatory Supervision, Direction and Control mantra:
Does the business have a presence in the marketplace?
Does it advertise its services?
Does it incur true business costs outside of “travel and subsistence?”
How could it genuinely provide a “substitute” or sub-contractor should that be contractually advantageous?
Is it truly a commercial enterprise?
These steps can be expensive, time consuming and administratively challenging for the majority of busy contractors to implement -therefore few actually do!
Members of The Contractor Support Network can answer YES to all of the above.