The Correspondent

UKTECH Newsdesk

24 ARTICLES
2024–2026
4 DESKS

2026

8 JUL 2026Temporary and Contract Hiring Leads the UK Labour Market RecoveryTemporary billings grew at the fastest rate since April 2023 as employers used flexible workers to advance shorter projects without committing to…BUSINESS
19 JUN 2026CEST Use Collapses as Firms Seek More Certain IR35 AssessmentsUse of HMRC’s employment status tool fell by 71 per cent in two years, according to Freedom of Information data, as clients moved towards alternative…IR35
6 MAY 2026Umbrella Only Hiring Is Driving IT Contractors Away, Survey FindsA survey of 730 contractors and freelancers found that umbrella working was effectively compulsory in many agency engagements, despite widespread…BUSINESS
6 APR 2026Umbrella Tax Liability Rules Put Agencies on the Hook for Unpaid PAYENew joint and several liability rules allowed HMRC to recover umbrella company payroll shortfalls from recruitment agencies or end clients, changing…BUSINESS
17 MAR 2026Technology Contract Market Weakens as AI Reshapes Specialist DemandSThree reported a 17 per cent fall in UK net fees and a 14 per cent decline across its global technology business, while clients redirected spending…IT
4 FEB 2026Post Office’s £104 Million IR35 Bill Exposes the Cost of MisclassificationThe government proposed paying £104.44 million directly to HMRC to settle the Post Office’s historic off payroll tax liability, creating a stark…IR35
29 JAN 2026Outside IR35 Shortage Tops Contractor Fears for 2026A survey of more than 600 independent professionals found that scarce outside IR35 work had become the biggest perceived threat to contractor…IR35

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

2024

17 DEC 2024National Insurance Bill clears the Commons, and umbrella contractors will absorb the riseA tax framed as a levy on employers lands, in practice, on the take-home pay of contractors working through umbrellas or inside IR35.POLITICS
26 NOV 2024Agencies to answer for umbrella PAYE from April 2026 as employment rights bill reaches committeeThe Budget shifted the tax risk of umbrella working onto recruitment agencies; days later, MPs began building the rights regime to match.IR35
30 OCT 2024Reeves lifts employer NIC to 15% and shifts umbrella PAYE liability onto agenciesThe Autumn Budget squeezed umbrella workers' take-home pay while redrawing who carries the tax risk in the contractor supply chain.POLITICS
16 SEP 2024Supreme Court referee ruling redraws the mutuality and control tests behind IR35The unanimous PGMOL judgment confirmed that the two tests contractors most often rely on to prove self-employment can be cleared far more easily than…IR35
27 AUG 2024Starmer's 'painful' Budget warning puts contractor dividends and CGT in the frameThe Prime Minister's 27 August garden speech spared income tax, NI and VAT, and in doing so told company-based contractors exactly where the Budget…POLITICS