OTS: Freelancers represented on IR35 committee

The composition of the new Small Business Review Committee has several names which will be familiar to the freelancer world.

The consultative committee will work with the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) which is conducting the review into small business taxation, including IR35.

The aim of the committee is to provide input into the OTS's projects by way of guidance, practical insights and act as reviewers/critiques of the OTS's output.

Committee members are made up from individuals or representatives with a particular interest and/or expertise in the areas being reviewed and come from the business, tax practitioners and academic communities.

Among the members are:

• Anne Redston - Anne is one of the country's leading authorities on owner managed businesses, employment status issues and IR35. She is an experienced tax specialist with a litigation and advisory practice. She has advised on a wide range of tax issues, including corporate tax, employment, pensions, financial services, social security and indirect taxes. She is Visiting Professor of Tax Law at King's College London and consultant editor to Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook ("the Yellow Book") and a member of both the First-tier Tax Tribunal and the Social Entitlement Tribunal. She recently moved to the Bar with Temple Tax Chambers and prior to that was a partner at Ernst & Young, and head of the UK Financial Services Tax Practice. She is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
• Chris Bryce - Chairman of freelancers' trade group, the PCG. A spokesman for the group said: "By harnessing the views of our members we can deliver the true voice of the freelancer directly to the heart of the decision making process."
  
• Crawford Temple - Crawford is founder of freelancer service provider, Professional Passport, and has been collecting data from surveys for the OTS. He is a regular contributor to UKTECH and a member of our 'Ask An Expert' panel. Crawford said: "The initial terms of reference are very encouraging and provide a good basis to deliver a real positive change. There will be challenges; one obvious one is the lack of hard data available on the market, and we see part of our role is to ensure that the direction is influenced by hard data rather than perception."
  
• Simon Sweetman - Simon was an Inspector of Taxes for 18 years before becoming a chartered accountant. He has been an independent consultant since 2001, specialising in family businesses and IR35 issues. He has written extensively on the subject and is a member of several taxation committees. Simon also answers freelancers' questions in UKTECH's 'Ask An Expert' section.

Industry team

Kate Cottrell, Director of IR35 status experts Bauer and Cottrell and member of UKTECH's Ask An Expert panel has also been appointed to the OTS's team of industry experts drawn from a broad range of commercial firms. The team will support the Chairman and Director in their work to establish and lead the Office for its first year. Kate founded her own small business specialising in IR35 and tax/NIC status in 2003. Prior to this Kate had many years' experience within the civil service. Her last post was as a manager with HM Revenue and Customs with responsibility for all aspects of employer compliance for small and medium sized businesses.

Kate is a regular contributor of articles and commentary on IR35 and sits on a number of expert advice panels. She is an active contributor and member of UKTECH.