IR35 : Company Structures

What bearing does a company structure have on IR35 status? (This has been debated a thousand times and I think I know the answer already, but please clarify this).

It has been suggested to me by another contractor that they are outside IR35 because of a special company structure put in place by their accountant.

Instead of working directly for their own company, they work for a secondary service company which is owned by a parent company of which they and their accountant are directors and shareholders.

I have known in the past who ran a similar scheme, at that time they simply worked as self-employed as a client of the parent company.

I have suggested that these are artificial arrangements and that the Inland Revenue would simply look through this structure, determining it to be artificial, and that the only real way to be clear is to have a series of business to business contracts and other indicators of self-employment.

In a nutshell the argument being put is that you can insulate yourself from IR35 by simply restructuring your company?

What value do these umbrella company schemes offer to contractors?

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PhilipRoss