What is IR35 Compliance-as-a-Service?

When the Off-Payroll (aka IR35) legislation changes were first introduced to the public sector back in 2017, departments and public bodies scrambled to meet compliance requirements, with mixed results.

These mixed results have led to some sizeable fines years later, with HMRC ruling that departments were failing to implement robust IR35 processes and frameworks in order to meet the compliance requirements, but more importantly, maintain compliance on an ongoing basis. The public sector learnt the hard way that IR35 was not just about being compliant on the deadline day, but in fact it was just the start of the compliance pathway.

Over £400m in fines have been issued to just a handful of public sector bodies so far.

It’s the reason so many private and public sector organisations are engaging expert partners like CoComply in order to manage on-going IR35 compliance to remove risk.

A learning opportunity for the private sector

Relax knowing IR35 is taken care of by qualified expert consultants.

The good news is that the Private sector can learn from Public Sector mistakes.  Managing IR35 compliance on-going does not need to be a burdensome task, and when done correctly, means you can gain an advantage over competitors.  Highly skilled PSCs want to work ‘outside IR35’ as genuine consultants, and will be attracted to organisations that offer this working arrangement. The public sector has evolved the way they engage consultants using frameworks such as G-Cloud and Digital Specialists and Outcomes to procure the services of PSCs via outcome and genuine service agreements rather than engage named individuals on a time and materials basis. Early indicators suggest that private sector organisations are heading in a similar direction when engaging PSCs – it makes much more sense to measure performance of suppliers based on outcomes delivered rather than on time spent.  

CoComply manages IR35 compliance on behalf of organisations across the UK. Our Compliance-as-a-Service model removes the burden of managing on-going IR35 compliance.  As a consultancy we are completely agnostic, and thus can work with any incumbent partners that are in place.

CoComply will become an extension of your internal team and manage:

• All SDS Assessments – carried out with your assessment tool of choice, or we can supply one, and in collaboration with the Requestor to ensure questions are understood and answered correctly

• Submit all results compliantly to the PSC and the business

• Manage all appeals and any escalated cases

• Manage on-going compliance checks to maintain validity – collecting evidence and creating an audit trail

• Reassess contractors

• Implement a compliant working practices framework to ensure contractors can work off-payroll with ease

• Minimise the time invested by your organisation so you can focus on the day to day

• Deal with any complex cases

• Support an organisational maturity strategy to further ease the burden of ongoing compliance through the use of technology and expert knowledge

If you wish to discuss our services, please get in contact with us. Please call CoComply on +44 (0) 203 051 9792, email hello@cocomply.co.uk or fill out the form below.