26 August 2015 
Amanda Darley, Head of Operations and Engagement
Hot on the heels of HMRC issuing its discussion document regarding the use of IR35 (and if you have any comments about their proposals to move a more significant burden onto 'engagers' - i.e. you - in this regard, then please see our previous article and use our template response to let Amanda know before 10th September), the Citizens Advice Bureau ('CAB') has issued a report on what it terms 'bogus self-employment' - Neither one thing nor the other: how reducing bogus self-employment could benefit workers, business and the Exchequer.
The CAB report mirrors much of the recent Office of Tax Simplification ('OTS') report on employment status regarding how confusing employment status is, saying that "government should address the lack of clarity around self-employment status as a priority". The report goes on to find that around one in ten self-employed people of 500 surveyed should actually be classed as employed. The report is largely concerned about the effects on the individual (losing out on employment benefits) but also the effect on business (those businesses who properly employ staff are at a competitive disadvantage to those who incorrectly treat staff as self-employed), and the Exchequer, which the report estimates could be losing £314 million a year due to bogus self-employment.
It goes on to provide some recommendations including "extending to self-employed people some of the rights have been previously reserved for employment, reviewing the tax and national insurance system with a view to ensuring that self-employed people are treated fairly" (which of course ties back to the OTS report again) "and strongly enforcing the rights of those who suspect that they are in bogus self-employment".
With an OTS report, a BIS review, a CAB report and a partly related HMRC discussion all happening in the same year, is this now the time for real change in this area?
