WfH tax relief for 2022/23?

biscan25

Man this is complicated. I am a home based worker. I have not been into the office on a single occasion since I started my 'job' in July 2021. I am an inside IR35 day rate contractor.
My employment contract is with an umbrella and is obviously silent on wfh and everything else.
My agency's contract with the end client (what a normal person would call my employer) states that the services will be supplied remotely.
I am however welcome to come into the office. I am not tempted to do so, because my notional office is in Manchester and I live in SE London. The majority of the people I work with are in Belfast/Portugal/India.

Can I assume that I am required to wfh and therefore claim the relevant reliefs?

Jeremy535897

You can look at the examples here:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32790

Your difficulty is that your employer has provided you with a workplace, and it is your personal choice to live in SE London and therefore not use it. Unless you could show that you need to be in London rather than Manchester to do your job, I doubt you qualify.

Grumpy_chap

I am not sure I agree - if @biscan25 has the UC and there is also an Agency in place and the Agency's contract says "remote services" then that suggests there is no work place from which the work can be carried out. 

Quite possibly the end Client's office would simply not have the capacity for the contract workers to all turn up from London, Belfast, Portugal, India.

Quite possibly, the reason the end Client has engaged these contractors to work on a consultancy basis from across the globe is because the end Client wishes to take advantage of the very best skilled people from the whole global pool and accepts that means using the very best skilled individuals and adapting methods of working to acknowledge that the very best skilled can pick and choose their Clients, so allow them to be based wherever the best skilled worker chooses to be based.

Does @biscan25 have an "Assignment Schedule" or similar that states "remote"?  That could well be enough to justify that the role does not have an office base.  The "Assignment Schedule" would usually be provided by the Agency (not the UC) and is probably available on request if it has not been provided.

This is a particular issue of agency / consultancy work that the majority of contracts remain written to be "outside IR35" compliant, yet from April 2021 so many Clients simply degreed everyone would be "inside IR35" as they saw that as the low-risk approach.  As end Clients start to realise that an "inside IR35" contractors are entitled to "extras" and after a few contractors stick their head above the parapet and force the issue, the costs of "inside IR35" will likely mean that end Clients review these default assessments.  Some of the "extras" that are meant to be provided for "inside IR35" include use of canteen, parking, creche, access to internal vacancies etc.  I have even heard of "inside IR35" where the extra Bank holiday is being deemed as paid and where the rate is being uplifted for the change in employers' NI.  As these parameters start to cost end Clients more, the end Clients will either have to just not have contract staff (unlikely) or revert back to "outside IR35".

Once back to "outside IR35", @biscan25 will work for Biscan25 Ltd with a contract that states "home based" and the allowance is then clear.

Jeremy535897

It is an interesting question that you raise, and I had just considered the position of an employee working directly for the end user. By definition, the umbrella company has no premises. It is worth further thought.

Jeremy535897

Having had a look at the literature, it is somewhat sparse, but it seems that HMRC, at least for claiming expenses like WFH or travel and subsistence, regard almost every person employed via an umbrella company as having to fulfil the same conditions that they would have to if they were employed directly by the end client.

biscan25

Grumpy_chap said:

I am not sure I agree - if @biscan25 has the UC and there is also an Agency in place and the Agency's contract says "remote services" then that suggests there is no work place from which the work can be carried out. 

Quite possibly the end Client's office would simply not have the capacity for the contract workers to all turn up from London, Belfast, Portugal, India.

Quite possibly, the reason the end Client has engaged these contractors to work on a consultancy basis from across the globe is because the end Client wishes to take advantage of the very best skilled people from the whole global pool and accepts that means using the very best skilled individuals and adapting methods of working to acknowledge that the very best skilled can pick and choose their Clients, so allow them to be based wherever the best skilled worker chooses to be based.

Does @biscan25 have an "Assignment Schedule" or similar that states "remote"?  That could well be enough to justify that the role does not have an office base.  The "Assignment Schedule" would usually be provided by the Agency (not the UC) and is probably available on request if it has not been provided.

This is a particular issue of agency / consultancy work that the majority of contracts remain written to be "outside IR35" compliant, yet from April 2021 so many Clients simply degreed everyone would be "inside IR35" as they saw that as the low-risk approach.  As end Clients start to realise that an "inside IR35" contractors are entitled to "extras" and after a few contractors stick their head above the parapet and force the issue, the costs of "inside IR35" will likely mean that end Clients review these default assessments.  Some of the "extras" that are meant to be provided for "inside IR35" include use of canteen, parking, creche, access to internal vacancies etc.  I have even heard of "inside IR35" where the extra Bank holiday is being deemed as paid and where the rate is being uplifted for the change in employers' NI.  As these parameters start to cost end Clients more, the end Clients will either have to just not have contract staff (unlikely) or revert back to "outside IR35".

Once back to "outside IR35", @biscan25 will work for Biscan25 Ltd with a contract that states "home based" and the allowance is then clear.

Just taken a look at the assignment. It doesn't refer to remote working, but every email I have from them does. It references the UK resourcing office in London as the client address, but that is little more than a postbox and I can't work there.

Inside IR35 has become a lot more onerous and expensive for all parties, with contractors in particular being hit for the NI increase twice (as the pay both the E'er and E'ee NI), which is main motorvation for choosing an outside assignment at my renewal, and going Ltd.

Grumpy_chap

Then, I would say that your not WFH from choice.  The office is simply a mailbox without capacity and the correspondence states "remote".

I think you are correct that the "safe" default position many companies took of determining all assignments as "inside" will not last long as end Client realise the cost with that plus the contractors simply refuse.  There is a shortage of labour in many areas so an end Client faced with securing resource "outside" or not being able to deliver will engage the resource as they need to.

biscan25

As chance would have it, being inside IR35 comes to the rescue today. Just received an email that all contractors will be given a 1.5% payrise from next week, to compensate for the Employer's NI rise, which would otherwise be in violation of the AWR, as this treatment is less favourable than permanent staff.

 Grumpy_chap said:

I am not sure I agree - if @biscan25 has the UC and there is also an Agency in place and the Agency's contract says "remote services" then that suggests there is no work place from which the work can be carried out. 

Quite possibly the end Client's office would simply not have the capacity for the contract workers to all turn up from London, Belfast, Portugal, India.

Quite possibly, the reason the end Client has engaged these contractors to work on a consultancy basis from across the globe is because the end Client wishes to take advantage of the very best skilled people from the whole global pool and accepts that means using the very best skilled individuals and adapting methods of working to acknowledge that the very best skilled can pick and choose their Clients, so allow them to be based wherever the best skilled worker chooses to be based.

Does @biscan25 have an "Assignment Schedule" or similar that states "remote"?  That could well be enough to justify that the role does not have an office base.  The "Assignment Schedule" would usually be provided by the Agency (not the UC) and is probably available on request if it has not been provided.

This is a particular issue of agency / consultancy work that the majority of contracts remain written to be "outside IR35" compliant, yet from April 2021 so many Clients simply degreed everyone would be "inside IR35" as they saw that as the low-risk approach.  As end Clients start to realise that an "inside IR35" contractors are entitled to "extras" and after a few contractors stick their head above the parapet and force the issue, the costs of "inside IR35" will likely mean that end Clients review these default assessments.  Some of the "extras" that are meant to be provided for "inside IR35" include use of canteen, parking, creche, access to internal vacancies etc.  I have even heard of "inside IR35" where the extra Bank holiday is being deemed as paid and where the rate is being uplifted for the change in employers' NI.  As these parameters start to cost end Clients more, the end Clients will either have to just not have contract staff (unlikely) or revert back to "outside IR35".

Once back to "outside IR35", @biscan25 will work for Biscan25 Ltd with a contract that states "home based" and the allowance is then clear.

Grumpy_chap

Is that in addition to, or included within the 6.7%?

biscan25 said:

Private sector: 6.67%. Day rate contract 6 month renewal. Manually negiotiated, take it or leave it.
I left my perm job as they didn't give anyone a rise last April, citing covid, whereas the firm made record profits and the directors got the highest bonuses yet.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79091061#Comment_79091061

biscan25

Grumpy_chap said:

Is that in addition to, or included within the 6.7%?

biscan25 said:

Private sector: 6.67%. Day rate contract 6 month renewal. Manually negiotiated, take it or leave it.
I left my perm job as they didn't give anyone a rise last April, citing covid, whereas the firm made record profits and the directors got the highest bonuses yet.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79091061#Comment_79091061

Entirely in addition. My negiotiation had this baked in, but this was a blanket uplift for all contractors, and applies from next Friday's payslip rather than my renewal date