IT contractor demand increases by 1.7% during first quarter of 2013: JobAdsWatch
Demand for IT contractors rose by 1.7% during the first quarter of 2013, compared to the final three months of 2012, and the UK’s IT contract market expanded by 1.8% compared to the first quarter of 2012. This is according to the latest quarterly update from Salaryservices and JobAdsWatch, which confirms that agencies continue to dominate the IT contractor market, accounting for 82.6% of all IT contracts advertised. The report also highlights how dominant the IT contract market is in the South and West of England and London, with only 16.1% of all contracts advertised in the North and Scotland. More...
Financial IT contract market forecast to fall by 16% during the second quarter of 2013
Financial IT contractor demand is predicted to fall by 16% during the second quarter of 2013, with only the trading applications area of the market forecast to show growth. The Finance IT employment outlook, published by IT recruiter Cititec, also predicts that permanent IT professional recruitment is to fall by 8%, signalling an overall downturn across the financial IT sector. The number of contract assignments across development, infrastructure, testing, and senior appointments are all forecast to shrink between April and June 2013. More...
Interim management contractors contribute £1.5bn to UK economy
Interim management contractors contributed over £1.5bn to the UK economy during 2012, with the number of interims starting new assignments increasing by 18% in the final quarter of the year. This is according to the Interim Management Association’s (IMA) latest Ipsos Mori survey for quarter 4 2012, and the association’s Membership Audit Yearly Report. The reports highlight the significant shift away from public sector assignments: 46% in 2011 compared to 28% by the end of 2012. More...
Core contracting discipline demand increases sharply in Scotland
Contractor demand in the core contracting disciplines of IT and engineering increased sharply in Scotland during March 2013. The latest Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs shows that engineering and construction contractor demand rose at the fastest pace for eighteen months, placing it in second place in the demand league table, ahead of IT and computing in third place. The only contracting sector to show falling demand was the interim management sector, where demand contracted sharply, taking it to seventh place out of the eight sectors monitored by the report. More...
‘Employee shareholder’: New quasi-contractor/employment status forced through parliament
A third form of employment status, ‘employee shareholder’, alongside ‘employees’ and ‘workers’, is a step closer following the House of Commons’ vote to reinstate plans that will allow some employees to sacrifice employment rights in exchange for shares. According to a report by OutLaw.com, the House of Lords rejected the original government proposal to institute the “new form of equity-linked employment contract”, branding it as “slavery”. But MPs have chosen to overturn the Lords’ rejection of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, despite enterprise minister Michael Fallon acknowledging that the new status would “not suit all companies or individuals”. More...
HMRC steps up IR35 compliance activity, targeting public sector contractors
Contractors working in the public sector are being targeted by HMRC as the taxman steps up its IR35 enforcement activity. Qdos Consulting’s Seb Maley told AccountingWeb’s Rachael Power that “the Revenue [has been] targeting public sector workers specifically over the last two months”. Power notes that public sector bodies such as the Student Loans Company no longer hire limited company contractors, preferring to put contingent workers on the payroll. “The current state of affairs is bad for contractors and even worse for the public sector,” adds Maley. More...
Contractors participating in tax avoidance schemes pursuing promoters for negligence
Contractors who took part in tax avoidance schemes during the mid-‘noughties’ and who are now being targeted by HMRC are suing their scheme providers for negligence. Laura Miller writes on IFAonline.co.uk’s that a “spate of professional negligence claims have been lodged against the promoters of tax avoidance schemes” by people who participated in schemes dating back to 2005-2007. HMRC is challenging the schemes, and insisting that those who participated pay back taxes, interest and penalties. More...
Contractors up-to-date with their tax affairs may benefit from HMRC’s new “super-computer”
Contractors who remain up-to-date with their tax affairs may benefit from HMRC’s new £45m Connect “super-computer”. The Sun’s deputy political editor Graeme Edwards highlights that “inspectors can trawl a billion pieces of information to spot criminal gangs or super-rich evaders within minutes”. Connect’s creator, Mike Hainey, says that “it is now easier to spot if someone is innocent”. This may result in contractors whose tax affairs are in order having less chance of being bound up in unwarranted HMRC reviews. More...
Contractors who have not filed their 2011/12 tax returns face daily fines
Contractors who have yet to file their 2011-2012 self-assessment tax returns have until 1 May 2013 to submit their return or face daily fines, warns HMRC. From that deadline, contractors will incur fines of £10 per day, for up to a maximum of 90 days. This is in addition to the £100 late filing penalty, and could cost contractors who don’t promptly submit their tax returns £1,000.
Contractors can still write off tax arrears resulting from HMRC’s mistakes
Contractors will still be able to write off tax arrears resulting from HMRC’s mistakes, as the taxman drops plans to amend Extra Statutory Concession (ESC) A19. ESC A19 allows contractors to write off their tax arrears if they can prove that the debt arose as a result of errors by HMRC, and that the contractor reasonably believed that their tax position was correct. HMRC was proposing to replace the ‘reasonable belief’ test with a new ‘objective test’, and to place a time limit on the use of the concession.