Topics
Topics
The subjects UKTECH has followed longest, each with a reviewed explainer and the archive's best reporting.
10 TOPICS
IR35: the intermediaries legislation from 1999 to todayWhat IR35 is, where it came from, how the tests work and how it changed in 2017 and 2021, with the UKTECH archive's reporting from the 1999 press release onwards.The off-payroll working rules: the 2017 and 2021 reforms explainedHow responsibility for IR35 status moved from the contractor to the client in the public sector in 2017 and the private sector in 2021, what went wrong, and where the rules stand now.Umbrella companies: from overarching contracts to joint and several liabilityHow umbrella employment grew out of IR35, the travel expense and mini-umbrella abuses, and the 2026 joint and several liability rules that made agencies answer for unpaid PAYE.The loan charge and contractor loan schemesHow employee benefit trust and contractor loan schemes worked, the 2019 loan charge that taxed the loans as income, the reviews, and the 2026 settlement scheme.CEST and HMRC's employment status toolsHMRC's check employment status for tax tool, its predecessors from the Employment Status Indicator to the business entity tests, why advisers distrust it, and how it is used.Section 660, the settlements legislation and Arctic SystemsHow HMRC used the settlements legislation against husband-and-wife companies, the Arctic Systems case from 2004 to the House of Lords in 2007, and the income shifting proposals that followed.Recruitment agency regulation: the Employment Agencies Act and the Conduct RegulationsThe Employment Agencies Act 1973, the 2003 Conduct Regulations and the contractor opt-out, the Agency Workers Regulations and the Fair Work Agency that enforces them from 2026.Managed service companies and the 2007 MSC rulesThe composite company market that grew up after IR35, the managed service company legislation of April 2007 that shut it, and the rules' reach into contractor accountancy today.Making Tax Digital for the self-employedMaking Tax Digital from its 2015 announcement to mandatory quarterly reporting for the self-employed and landlords from April 2026, the thresholds, penalties and what applies to contractors.Employment status: employee, worker and self-employedThe three-tier structure of employment status in UK law, the tests the courts apply, the cases from Ready Mixed Concrete to Pimlico Plumbers and PGMOL, the Taylor review and why tax and rights still diverge.