As you may know, back in September Kingsbridge teamed up with IPSE to deliver a webinar on the forthcoming rollout of IR35 in the private sector. It was filled with helpful advice, which you can find summarised on our blog, but it also gave our Legal Manager, Nicola Hayman, a chance to set out what Kingsbridge has been doing to help contractors prepare for the changes.
Educating contractors on IR35
You can see from our blog that we are passionate about educating contractors on the ins and outs of the IR35 reforms. This is because we have witnessed several knee-jerk reactions from businesses, forcing contractors into IR35 whether they need to be or not, so as to avoid any potential penalties. As Hayman puts it, “If your assignment is legitimately outside IR35, you shouldn’t be pushed into it.”
By ensuring contractors are educated on how the IR35 changes will work, we can help you understand exactly when you are and are not inside IR35 so that you can make your case correctly.
Advising on contractor insurance
“For contractors wishing to continue to work independently and offer their service through a PSC it has become more important than ever to ensure that they have proper business insurances in place. Holding business insurances with a reputable insurer is a key part of being able to demonstrate taking responsibility for the work you do through your business.” – Osborne Clarke, August 2019
As having contractor insurance is a key indicator that you are in business on your own account and, therefore, outside IR35, it’s key that you hold the correct cover. Naturally, Kingsbridge can help with this with our contractor insurance offer.
Building on our Legal Expenses cover
We are also making some exciting changes to our Legal Expenses cover, underwritten by an A-rated insurer, building on it to create additional options that include cover for taxes, interest and penalties in the event of an IR35 investigation.
With our standard Legal Expense package you still get £100,000 of legal expenses cover for:
- IR35 status enquiry defence costs
- Tax, VAT, PAYE and NIC investigations
- Contract disputes
- Jury attendance
- Debt recovery
- Identity theft
- Personal Injury
Our new IR35 Protect packages offer the above cover, plus £100,000 of cover for taxes, interest and penalties from HMRC.
If you opt for Standard IR35 Protect, you will get one IR35 status review, and with the Premium package, you get unlimited status reviews. This means you can have absolute confidence in your IR35 status for any given assignment.
In addition to this, there are some key enhancements to this cover that make it a unique offer for the contracting market.
- Prospect of Success is automatically met when you have an outside IR35 determination from our panel. To explain this further, ‘Prospect of Success’ is a legal clause used industry-wide that means you must have at least a 51% chance of winning the case for your claim to be upheld. This is usually determined by an appointed legal representative from the insurers.
- You are not obligated to carry out an IR35 Status review with our panel for the policy to respond. You can use an independent review business although our insurers will reserve the right to review the prospect of success for any claim and only where they judge there is more than a 51% chance of success.
- We now offer an extended reporting period. This means for any contracts that were active during the policy period, you can claim under the IR35 Covers for up to four years after it expires, giving you complete peace of mind.
- Our IR35 Protect polices are underwritten to protect the party that is held liable by HMRC in an IR35 investigation. If the legislation changes on 6th April 2020 and as a result your end-client or recruiter is deemed liable, this policy will still react to protect everyone in the chain.
- Our Legal Expenses and IR35 Protect products are underwritten by an A-rated insurer.
You can find out more on our new products here or by getting in touch with our team on 01242 808 740.
Already a Kingsbridge policy holder? You can add this cover to your policy at any time, just call our customer support team on 01242 808 740 and select option 4. Customer service lines are open 8am – 7pm Monday – Friday.
If you are new to Kingsbridge then you can buy this cover on its own by calling 01242 808 740 and selecting option 1, or visiting https://www.kingsbridge.co.uk/products/legal-ir35-protect-cover/.
