The dam starts to break

As predicted in the article 'Benefiting from the changes caused by IR35', clients are beginning to see the commercial advantages in adapting to IR35.

Those clients - and contractors - who make the change sooner rather than later can steal a march on their competitors and there is increasing evidence that clients are prepared to make that move.

This week, a major company in the IT industry has decided that they don't want to run the risk of contractors suing for employees' rights, they also don't want a cost increase, nor do they want to run the risk of losing highly-skilled contractors to overseas competitors.

They are proposing that from April 1 all contractors must be on a self employment type contract and they intend to amend working practices and contracts to ensure contractors pass the IR35 tests.