IR35 Expert Webinar for PR Freelancers
The PR Cavalry
This week saw our webinar for PR freelancers on IR35, featuring the input of two experts, one in tax and the other in employment law.
Dawn Foden-Smith (contact details below) is herself a freelance tax advisor and a former HMRC inspector and Lucy Flynn is an employment law specialist with solicitors Bexley Beaumont
Over the course of an hour we dived deep into the tax implications of the forthcoming changes to IR35 for both Freelance PR professionals and their clients and considered in detail the employment law aspects for both sole trader freelancers and those who have limited companies.
We remain of the view expressed in our article for the CIPR’s influence online magazine in an article about PR freelancing and IR35 that the so-called CEST tests set out by HMRC are very badly designed and the nature of PR freelancing does not fit into many of the tests, creating many grey areas and we that fear a lot of clients will conclude wrongly that they are affected.
These areas are where the opportunity for freelancers (and clients) lies. By clarifying terms in a contract which address the vagueness of CEST and its incompatibility with PR practice, many freelancers and clients who feel they are in the ‘may or may not be affected’ category can feel more certain that the determination on whether a freelancer is or is not covered by IR35 becomes easier.
These changes should not be contrived to wriggle out of IR35, they should reflect actual PR practice and be valuable to both parties in creating certainty. But that certainty can help both parties answer CEST in a way that benefits them.
We have been lobbying the CIPR to publish model paragraphs which can be used to modify existing contracts to enable more clients and freelancers to avoid the cost and friction that being caught up in IR35 will undoubtedly cause.
We believe that we have been successful in persuading the CIPR to draft this wording with the help of their lawyers we and look forward to reading it.
In the meantime our more detailed blog on IR35 and PR freelancer contracts may be useful to you
Here is the link to the webinar audio and presentation and once again, sincere thanks to our experts Dawn and Lucy
Dawn may be contacted about her services at dawnsmith.ds66[AT]gmail.com and Lucy at Bexley Beaumont via BB[AT]BexleyBeauomont.com
Please do consider using their expert services
