Latest news and updates - July 2021

A warm welcome to our (very belated) July Newsletter.

In this edition we take a look at when companies decide upon blanket 'inside IR35' Status Determination Statements (SDS), and what effect this is having on their contractor engagement. In addition, we trumpet another success story.

Status Determination Statements (SDS)

Many medium to large NDT service companies (certainly in the Oil & Gas sector, with large temporary workforces) have decided to apply a blanket ‘inside IR35' status to all of their contractors from this April. They've done this because they don't want to be stung by HMRC for an incorrect assessment of their contractors' contractual status - vis-à-vis tax & NICs - and therefore be liable for unpaid tax. HMRC requires that the end user client 'take reasonable care when making a determination'. I believe that this has not always been the case and those that could genuinely operate outside of IR35 have been mistakenly caught up in these blanket assessments. This can only have a negative impact on all parties.

It certainly has had an impact on what the company can offer as a daily/hourly rate. I recently had a conversation with a large asset integrity company's in-house recruiter, that had called 183 NDT technicians for an offshore roulement - they all turned her down, citing PAYE and poor rate on offer as reasons. Payment of Employer's NI will have a dramatic impact on the bottom line, which in turn means that the rate on offer is not commercially attractive to contractors - that's in addition to higher deductions due to operating under PAYE.

There are 3 things that hirers need:

1. An SDS tool that delivers an assessment that can be relied upon.
2. Someone who is knowledgeable of the task to make accurate inputs into it.
3. Peace of mind that insurance can give.

Benefits of accurately determining contract workforce as 'outside IR35' for hirers:

• Access to the best talent on the market.
• Prevent disruption to their projects.
• Help them maintain a compliant workforce.
• Remove their tax liability.
• Save them money on unnecessary costs, e.g. no hike in rates to offset higher tax burden to contractors; employer's NI.
• One-stop shop to rapidly gain Status Determination and manage whole supply chain.

How can we help?

We've partnered with Kingsbridge to provide an award winning IR35 solution that manages the entire process, from status assessment to process consultation, so you can confidently and compliantly maintain your flexible workforce outside IR35.

This solution can also be covered by Kingsbridge's market leading, Zurich underwritten, IR35 insurance policy that protects the whole supply chain for up to both £100k legal defence costs and £100k tax liability per contractor. That's right, theyguarantee to indemnify for legal defence, taxes, penalties and interest in respect of an IR35 investigation, for whoever is deemed the responsible party in the supply chain. And, the cost of this is not borne by the hirer!

This means that the entire supply chain is protected against the potentially crippling costs of an IR35 enquiry, and any tax debts found owing - peace of mind for the contractor, and a safe bet for the fee payer.

How does the Kingsbridge IR35 Status Tool work?

The Kingsbridge IR35 Status Tool, developed by Andy Vessey ATT, takes a best-of-both approach, allying a custom-designed automated process with in-house expert consultancy to provide the quickest, most accurate IR35 status result available.

If it's a clear-cut case, the tool generates an instant determination, as well as a comprehensive report that pulls through the notable positives or negatives of a given engagement, as well as an official Status Determination Statement (SDS) that you can supply to the contractor and the supply chain. If it's a borderline result, the answers given are manually reviewed by Kingsbridge's in-house IR35 specialists.

Take a look at the tool here

If you'd like a demo of the Kingsbridge IR35 Status tool or have any questions, please get in touch with me by the details below or click here

How NDT Resources embraces the necessity for temporary workers in creating a flexible and agile worldwide workforce.

Temporary work, once deemed unreliable and only a short respite from unemployment, has in recent years come to represent freedom, progression and opportunity. Gone are the days of 'a job for life'. In fact, stagnation is seen as the enemy of the modern candidate.

Temporary work creates a more agile economy, enabling companies to fill short- term positions due to a sudden influx of work or an absence of permanent staff, keeping that company competitive, and helping the worker gain necessary skills and experience.

Case in point: We were recently approached by a Scandinavian NDT Inspection company to supply temporary workers to cover an upsurge in demand. They were in need of some specialist NDT Technicians to work on rotation offshore. They wanted them by the end of the week!

We understood the urgency of the requirement, but were sure to maintain the quality of the candidates we approached. Needless to say, we have been successful in placing two technicians which were deployed within a matter of days, and the client is looking forward to repeating this success in the near future.

'Many companies say that their business would not be able to operate at all without the recruitment industry, while the flexibility provided by temporary work helps keep UK unemployment low.'

Recruitment & Employment Confederation, 2021, 'Recruitment and Recovery, Industry Analysis', <https://www.rec.uk.com/our-view/research/industry-...>

Q & A

Jobs

Our job offering is constantly changing, varying from UK to global placements for a wide range of roles in the NDT sector. Contact us for details.