PCG enlists Francesca Lagerberg to pick IR35 test cases

In this issue;

• Case law strategy
• PCG events diary
• Meeting with CBI
• RIP Act and PSI Act
• PCG AGM and Conference
• One man's fight and how PCG helped
• "Audit trail" your business - PCG checklist

Case Law Strategy

As announced this week on the PCG noticeboard:

PCG has enlisted the assistance of tax and accountancy expert Francesca Lagerberg who will assess possible cases that the PCG can support in order to clarify and extend the case law boundaries for IR35. She is already looking at the first possible case.

Francesca is a freelance tax consultant who writes and lectures on all areas of tax. One of her roles involves acting as a senior tax consultant to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales's Tax Faculty. In addition to being a tax expert Francesca is also a qualified barrister (non practising). She is therefore eminently suited to working with the PCG in this area.

Francesca will help the PCG Board decide which cases could be supported by the PCG and will try to identify cases that offer the following potential benefits:

1. Securing clear "victories" over the Revenue in a way that ensures the result can be used by other members to better understand their own situations and help establish contract boundaries.
2. Cases where the benefits of success outweigh the possibility of failure. Here success may be far from certain but the case would clarify an important status issue or could favourably extend the established status test boundaries as they might apply in the knowledge based contracting environment.

Unfortunately PCG does not have the resources to support all cases that meet those objectives. It is inevitable therefore that support may be given to one case and refused to another despite the circumstances being very similar.

Members who think that their case could be one that PCG might benefit from supporting must be prepared to let PCG have access to all relevant supporting documentation including contracts and any contract reviews that have been carried out by outside experts. They must also be prepared to allow PCG to circulate details internally and to outside experts for technical opinions and to allow Francesca Lagerberg to review the papers and consult with the member.

Members who think their cases or situation might be suitable should contact PCG using this e-mail address:

cases@pcgroup.org.uk.

Members should give as much relevant information as they can and, if possible, attach copies of contracts, correspondence etc. The case will be vetted for suitability and to ensure that all such cases are properly documented before going to the outside expert for assessment.

PCG Events Diary

To track all major events, exhibitions and conferences, PCG is now running an events diary so that members can follow relevant activities and contribute information.

Meeting with CBI

A delegation of PCG representatives met with officers from the CBI in August to discuss a number of issues including the apparent increase in risk to clients who are not using business-to-business contracts for temporary project resources. Full details of this meeting are available and PCG is following up the discussions.

RIP Act and PSI Act

The Home Office have asked for consultation on the RIP Act again:

PCG has an opportunity to contribute to a DTI review document for the information security sector. Members who work in this area are invited to contribute:

PCG AGM and conference

Watch for an announcement soon detailing full details of the 2001 AGM and conference to be held on Saturday 13th October in York.

One man's fight - and how PCG helped

A PCG member has recorded how he fought to hear the magic opinion from the IR: .."As such, the engagement will not be subject to the "intermediaries" legislation." . The member records the steps he took and how PCG helped:

"Audit trail" your business - PCG checklist

PCG has published a comprehensive checklist for members to 'audit' the consultancy status of their businesses. Being In Business On Your Own Account (BIBOYOA) is an important self-employment pointer and demonstrates how collating information to support your status will not only increase certainty, but will also provide evidence to the IR in the event of an investigation.

Members' resolutions

There is a members' forum on the site where members can post their own resolutions and seek support. Current 'live' resolutions can be viewed at:

PCG is still reliant on contributions from members to fund the legal challenge. Members who wish to contribute to the fund should go to:

Susie Hughes

(Head of Executive Services)

This newsletter is published by the Professional Contractors Group. Please feel free to circulate the newsletter to other independent contractors who you know, and who may be interested in joining the PCG. Some links in the newsletter will take you into the password-protected members' area of the PCG website.

To view the Forum links in this newsletter, you must be first logged into the Forum.

--

PCG Press