ContractorUK

Commissioning managers on data centre contracts are on up to £900 a day. The median for contracts that mention data centres is £525. Budget 2026's Data Centre Covenant does not open that work tomorrow. "Strategic" is still undefined. Five tests decide which sites get help moving up the queue for a grid connection, and the rules are due for mid-2027. About 12 months to get positioned. Hiring now: AI networking, GPU clusters, and controls and operational technology. Michael Aspinall of First Point Group on the five tests: contractoruk.com/jobs-guides…

Advisers stop short of saying HMRC’s promoter ban will head off a Loan Charge 2.0. HMRC can penalise a promoter up to £1 million, plus £5,000 for every participant. A conviction can mean up to two years in prison. Advisers say legislation alone will not solve it. HMRC’s own assessment scores the Exchequer impact as negligible, every year to 2030-31. If legislation alone will not deter providers, what will? contractoruk.com/hmrc-tax-av…

AI demand has taken IT contractor hiring to its highest point in nearly four years. REC’s index hit 53.7 in September. The last higher reading was January 2023, at 55.0. It is a third straight month of growth. Simon Moore on the AI roles behind the number, what they pay, and why “AI experience” on a CV is now being tested. contractoruk.com/news/ai-dri…

The Budget brought relief for some, but left many contractors footing the bill. The chancellor raised the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage by 3.9%. However, Labour is cutting the Business Asset Disposal Relief lifetime limit from £1 million to £500,000 from 6 April 2027. It is also adding two percentage points to property income tax, and frozen thresholds risk pulling contractors into higher bands. IR35 reform remains sidelined. Louise Rayner FCCA, MBA, founder of LRay Consulting, writes for ContractorUK. contractoruk.com/news/budget…

The Cabinet Office has set aside £38.5 million for IR35, after HMRC found the department had not taken reasonable care. Contractors generally aren’t liable for this bill. It may still sway clients into seeking less outside work. Outside IR35 in the core department has fallen from around 91% of new engagements to around 3% in only six years. Ryan Dawson, IR35 Project Manager at Kingsbridge, writes exclusively for ContractorUK. contractoruk.com/news/cabine…

IR35 untouched. The lifetime limit for closing a company is cut in half. £1 million down to £500,000, from April 2027. The chancellor says no change for 3 in 4 claimants. A contractor with £750,000 of qualifying gains, who has not used the relief before, could pay another £15,000. In 2020 the limit fell from £10 million to £1 million, and that set off a rush of MVLs. One adviser expects directors with the most to lose to close before next April. One called the cut absolutely horrendous. Another said the exit door just got narrower. Six advisers regretted that IR35 was left untouched. One of them: “IR35? Untouched. Again!” Read the full coverage, exclusively on ContractorUK. contractoruk.com/news/autumn…

Frozen thresholds. The £100,000 trap. IR35, dividend tax and umbrella company rules. That is what contractors are raising before John Healey stands up for his first Budget today. ContractorUK is following along live, with what each announcement means for contractors. contractoruk.com/autumn-budg…

England’s over-40s could pay another 1p of tax to help fund a national care service. Sir Steve Webb’s plan would cost about £31 a month. It would raise £3.5bn a year, and contractors are included. There is an opt-out. Enrolment, however, may be the default. What it would do to dividends is not spelled out. Healey’s first Budget is Wednesday. Daniel Mepham, managing director of SG Accounting, writes for ContractorUK. contractoruk.com/news/social…

The Churchill Knight hearing is off. It was a wider test of the MSC rules John Healey helped bring in in 2007. On Wednesday he delivers his first Budget. He reportedly told an adviser, in private, that they would be “very narrowly applied and only in very specific circumstances.” Contractors in the cases are already sharing what they make of the hearing and the letters. Tyra Ali, a former HMRC official and consultancy manager at Markel Tax, gives her thoughts exclusively to ContractorUK. contractoruk.com/news/church…

More than £1,000 for a single umbrella introduction. As Ashley Olliver leaves the UK umbrella industry, he sits down exclusively with ContractorUK for a tell-all interview. He has seen rogue umbrellas advertise that fee. A compliant margin would struggle to support it. The off-payroll rules, JSL and the Employment Rights Act are driving a shift toward fewer, larger umbrellas. Smaller, well-run firms risk being squeezed out. Umbrella regulation alone will not drive out the cowboys, he says. He departs Parasol on 30 October 2026, after 18 years in the umbrella market, for People 2.0 in the US. contractoruk.com/news/paraso…

The right of substitution is about to get a lot less important. The employment status consultation could damage IR35 defences previously reliant on the importance of this clause. The spur is IWGB v Deliveroo at the Supreme Court in November 2023. This categorisation of all under the same blanket leaves much open for discussion. Andy Chamberlain, head of strategic policy at the Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA), writes exclusively for ContractorUK on the impact of this potential wide-scale generalisation. Contractors can respond. It closes at 11:55pm on Friday 8 January 2027. contractoruk.com/news/weaken…

Officials leave inside IR35 contractors outside. The new employment status consultation is meant to protect people the law treats as self-employed when they are not. It is 47 pages. It does not mention IR35 once. If you are inside, you already pay like an employee. You still have none of the rights. Public sector off-payroll started on 6 April 2017. Rebecca Seeley Harris, who worked with the Treasury on the 2015 employment status review, calls that omission glaring. Officials say the consultation is about rights, not tax. They are not proposing to reform IR35. Contractors can respond. It closes at 11:55pm on Friday 8 January 2027. contractoruk.com/news/employ…

In July a contractor facing a loan demand was handed a partner’s number at a law firm, and reported being told he “knew the W28 guy.” Companies House, however, records an overlap, and an even bigger question. What relationships, if any, exist between solicitors offering assistance to contractors and the businesses pursuing their debts? Asked whether the firm had dealings with West 28th Street, the partner said: “I can’t answer that question.” Firgas Esack has the record. We have asked the firm to explain it. The full story by Firgas Esack, exclusively for ContractorUK contractoruk.com/news/w28-co…

Workers’ rights, not tax, look set to reshape UK contracting under Labour. Jonathan Reynolds told the Labour conference the government will end ‘bogus self-employment’. Philip Ross sets out seven policy moves to watch. A conversation with chancellor John Healey at the conference reinforced his view. One of those moves could tie employment taxes to employment rights for people already inside IR35. If you are inside IR35, do you have the rights, or only the tax? contractoruk.com/news/labour…

Will you still get paid on Friday if your umbrella company is sold? That is the question contractors ask first. The announcement rarely answers it. If the buyer takes the shares, your employer is the same company. Payday, margin and your contract continue unless they tell you, in writing, that they are changing. A move to a different umbrella is another matter. That is a new employer. Holiday pay and any unpaid wages do not transfer on a reassuring email. Shelley Ankers-Wainwright has been in these deal rooms. She sets out 10 questions to ask. If yours has already changed hands, did the cheque still come in on time? contractoruk.com/news/umbrel…

The First-tier Tribunal has upheld HMRC’s refusal of a £569,175 VAT claim by ITS Plant-Tech, a wind-tech company. ITS Payroll invoiced for wages, employer National Insurance and a 1.5% fee, and charged VAT on the whole amount. ITS Plant-Tech paid the workers’ net itself. There was no written contract moving the staff. HMRC allowed the VAT on the fee. It refused the VAT on the wages and National Insurance. Read the full story by Carolyn Walsh on ContractorUK. contractoruk.com/news/its-pl…

Sean paid £1,994.30 in 2021 to settle contractor loans of £121,300. He is now being chased for £131,006.45. Felicitas recorded that payment as a complete discharge and irrevocably released him. The loans were then sold to West 28th Street. A source estimates that his account represented about £10 of that portfolio. West 28th Street has not written the debt off, and is pursuing it in full. If you paid to settle one of these and a new letter turned up, what happened when you sent them the settlement? contractoruk.com/news/contra…

Contractors are being told they can no longer use umbrella companies they have trusted for years. Lucy Smith, founder of Clarity Umbrella has found Joint and Several Liability squeezing compliant smaller umbrellas off agency preferred supplier lists, while agencies lean towards larger firms with bigger balance sheets. HMRC’s impact note said other impacts had been considered and none had been identified. She counts exactly 10 HMRC winding-up petitions against umbrella companies, filed between 26 August and 2 October. Has your agency made you switch umbrella since 6 April? What reason did they give? contractoruk.com/news/jsl-sm…

Robert Walters has a Budget ask that is not about tax. Clearance still sits between one approved project and the next. The contractor waits. The client waits. The other offer gets accepted. That is what Jason King, a senior technology manager at Robert Walters, wants Healey to fix on 28 October: an existing clearance that can move, where it is viable. He also wants funding for AI skills, and more. How long did your last clearance take, and did the contract survive the wait? contractoruk.com/news/budget…

2% levy on earnings above £75,000: one accountant is bracing for it, and hopes he is wrong. Sumit Agarwal of DNS Accountants sees that levy, in Healey's 28 October Budget, sitting between the higher rate at £50,270 and the additional rate at £125,140. He would not be surprised if contractors already pushed into umbrellas packed up and left as a result. Dan Mepham of SG Accounting does not expect a dramatic IR35 announcement or a rewrite of the rules, a month after he and other advisers asked Healey for an off-payroll reset. Michael McCullion of Bright Ideas says tweaks, including around Status Determination Statements, are more likely than that reset. Would a 2% levy above £75,000 be enough to make you look at working abroad? contractoruk.com/news/autumn…