IR35 History | 9 March 1999 | Countering avoidance in the provision of Personal

Inland Revenue announces Government's intention to target a particular type of 'tax avoidance', the so-called Monday-to-Friday scenario.

March 9 1999 - Budget

After the Chancellor Gordon Brown closed his Red Box on last year's Budget, the 'minor' announcements - not worthy of verbal explanation at the Dispatch Box - were published.

The Inland Revenue's 35th such announcement (hence IR35) in a press release explained the Government's intention to target a particular type of 'tax avoidance', the so-called Monday-to-Friday scenario.

The Revenue wanted to stop people leaving - sometimes under pressure from employers - their jobs on a Friday, setting up their own companies over the weekend; and returning to the same job, at the same place, doing the same work on a Monday - only now as a 'small business' rather than an 'employee'.

IR35: The original press release dated 9 March 1999