The File
2025
12 ARTICLES
2025
2025
2025
- 16 DEC 2025HMRC writes to 864,000 traders as digital tax deadline moves inside four monthsLong the reform that never quite arrived, Making Tax Digital hardened into a firm obligation in December 2025 as HMRC began writing to the people it…BUSINESS
- 26 NOV 2025Budget Dividend Tax Increase Deals Another Blow to Limited Company ContractorsThe Autumn Budget has raised the ordinary and upper dividend tax rates by two percentage points, directly reducing the income retained by contractors…BUSINESS
- 10 OCT 2025Contract market cools again in September as employers freeze hiring before the BudgetTemporary billings fell faster than the month before and candidate numbers surged, as the latest KPMG and REC Report on Jobs found firms holding back…BUSINESS
- 17 SEP 2025Umbrella Company Tax Risk Moves Up the Contractor Supply ChainHMRC has explained how recruitment agencies and end clients will become responsible for unpaid employment taxes when umbrella companies fail to…BUSINESS
- 5 AUG 2025Companies House Announces Mandatory Identity Checks for Contractor Company DirectorsMillions of company directors and controlling shareholders will have to verify their identities under a new Companies House regime that directly…BUSINESS
- 21 JUL 2025Draft Finance Bill hands HMRC criminal powers over tax-avoidance promotersThe government's Legislation Day package aims squarely at the marketed schemes that have left thousands of contractors nursing unexpected tax bills…BUSINESS
- 23 JUN 2025Government Technology Plan Signals New Work in AI, Cybersecurity and Quantum ComputingA new ten year government strategy has placed artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced connectivity, semiconductors and quantum computing at…IT
- 8 MAY 2025HMRC Revises CEST as IR35 Status Checks Face Renewed ScrutinyHMRC has updated its employment status tool for the first time in more than four years, but contractors and tax specialists say the changes improve…IR35
- 6 APR 2025Umbrella contractors bear the 15% employer NIC rise as the new tax year beginsThe 2025-26 tax year opened with a dearer minimum wage and a steeper National Insurance bill, and for umbrella-employed IT contractors the two…BUSINESS
- 26 MAR 2025Spring Statement leaves IR35 alone as HMRC lines up a £1bn compliance pushRachel Reeves ruled out fresh tax rises on 26 March, but a hardened HMRC enforcement drive and a lower Making Tax Digital threshold shifted the…POLITICS
- 26 FEB 2025MPs tell Reeves the loan charge review is drawn too narrowly to reach contractorsThe government's new inquiry examines only how contractors settle, not whether they should have to, and cross-party MPs want to know why.POLITICS
- 31 JAN 2025HMRC logs 11.5 million on-time tax returns but 1.1 million miss the 31 January deadlineA record online filing rate could not stop about 1.1 million taxpayers, contractors among them, missing the 31 January deadline and the penalties…BUSINESS