ContractorUK

Contractor UK is home to the UK's IT contracting community. Online since 1999, offering daily news & guides, contract jobs, rates, calculators & an active forum

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

"Tax Fraud Warning" — a traditionally vague HMRC leaves no room for doubt with Bills of Exchange.

Imagine a client paying you with an IOU. That's how some promoters are paying HMRC.

Two months into JSL, the first bypass has emerged. The mechanism? Bills of Exchange — an 1882 legal instrument being repackaged as a way to "settle" PAYE liabilities without HMRC ever seeing a penny.

Leading law firm Chartergates writes for ContractorUK on the ancient financial instrument that risks dragging agencies, end clients and contractors into serious tax exposure.

https://t.co/EmbXW5dMwp

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

Only two months into JSL, the first bypass has emerged, and it's a liability time bomb.

The model? Bills of Exchange. A mechanism dating back to 1882, now being repackaged as a way to "settle" PAYE liabilities without paying HMRC a penny.

The industry's reaction has been swift.

Chartergates describes it as "a financial shortcut" that HMRC "will not treat as money in the bank."

Crawford Temple, CEO of Professional Passport, calls it "a ruse that exploits uncertainty around the new JSL rules, in an attempt to create artificial loopholes."

https://t.co/XfXx9WYYNg

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

A contractor needs several contracts to end before they're out of work. A permie needs one redundancy.

Permanent employment is still the safer bet. Just a lot less safe than it used to be.

Lottie ㅤHutchins, eight months into contracting herself, on how the safety gap is narrowing.

https://t.co/Oxc6m97fJ3

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

HMRC's close company consultation has put director loan accounts back on the radar.

Late recorders. Retrospective preparers. Fluctuaters. Reversers. Overlappers — the five contractor patterns in the HMRC crosshairs.

Christian Hickmott, MD of Integro Accounting, writes exclusively for ContractorUK on the common DLA scenarios behind them, before the consultation's response form closes 10 June.

https://t.co/EIxsg4LWmm

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

Five banking mistakes are still quietly draining UK limited companies in 2026/27.

The most expensive one isn't what you'd think — it's leaving cash idle while the Bank of England rate sits where it does.

Chloe Wilson at Tide breaks down the full list, the fixes, plus an exclusive £100 cashback offer for ContractorUK readers.

https://t.co/UZ9pqggw0Y

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

"Hallelujah!… but it's still peanuts, really."

That's one director's verdict on Rachel Reeves's surprise 10p hike to HMRC's mileage rate — the first increase in 15 years.

55p a mile, backdated to April. Around £500/yr extra, tax-free, for a contractor doing 5,000 business miles. Over 10,000 miles? Still 25p.

Meaningful, or merely peanuts?

https://t.co/XHangInfDN

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

266 UK businesses close every week because of late payments.

After 30 years of inaction, the King's Speech finally put late payment back on the agenda.

The catch? The new Late Payments Bill assigns 12 people to fix it.

Adam Home of Safe Collections writes for ContractorUK on the significance of the bill — and what it actually means for UK contractors

https://t.co/TPKwmSSJLM

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

Three quarters of self-employed people don't believe they can get a mortgage. Yet 80% want to own a home — more than full-time employees.

Who keeps telling them they can't?

Lottie ㅤHutchins talks to John Yerou and George Yerou of Freelancer Financials about the specialist underwriting teams most contractors never reach — and the criteria that's actually a floor, not a ceiling.

With further insight from Jo Elwell at Contractor Financial.

https://t.co/Bipt9l8qG5

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

69% of UK hiring leaders now say AI-enabled impersonation is the biggest emerging threat to recruitment integrity — and Gartner reckons 1 in 4 candidate profiles will be fake by 2028.

So who catches the deepfake "worker" once they've slipped past the agency?

Ashley Olliver, a director at Parasol, on why the umbrella is the supply chain's last line of defence under JSL — and the tax bill that flows back to the recruiter when it misses.

https://t.co/rFlOAUn7iC

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

In 15 years motoring costs have risen 40 - 60%; contractors can still only claim 45p but this may be due to change.

Now HMRC is finally reviewing AMAPs for the first time in 15 years. Will contractors actually feel the benefit, or is this another optimistic government claim?

Kerry Newman, Director of SG Accounting breaks down what to expect — and what not to assume — ahead of Autumn Budget 2026.

https://t.co/2bPPJAAjGZ

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

With day rates of £600 to £2,000 a day, Forward Deployed Engineer roles are getting too hard to ignore.

Demand in the UK is now outpacing the supply of full-time candidates — and the contract market has stepped in to fill the gap.

Adam Moore, MD of Morela, writes for ContractorUK on the role Palantir invented in 2003, why OpenAI, Anthropic, Salesforce and Cohere are now building entire go-to-market strategies around it, and what it pays British contractors in Q2 2026.

https://t.co/rPm8UeE11P

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

IT contractor demand just had its biggest monthly recovery since Q1 2025.

REC data obtained by ContractorUK shows demand moved from 43.9 in March to 47.3 in April — still under 50, but on the cusp of growth.

The reason isn't a hiring boom. It's the opposite: war, uncertainty and hesitation around permanent hiring are pushing UK plc back onto temporary labour.

Has the contract market finally bottomed out? Or is this just clients buying flexibility until the dust settles?

https://t.co/ABbCq3CcLQ

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

So mutuality went against you. Control went against you. You're inside IR35 - right?

Not always. PGMOL is the latest reminder.

Rebecca Seeley Harris LLB LLM MSc, writes for ContractorUK on the part of the test HMRC won on - and the part it didn't.

A timely reminder, in 2026, that IR35 is decided by the whole relationship, not by mutuality and control alone.

https://t.co/EyIh4wnRLQ

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

The Bank of England held at 3.75% on April 30th but your mortgage quote, if you applied this morning, will start with a 5.

"Lenders are setting mortgage interest rates based on swap rates, not the BoE base rate," says John Yerou, CEO of Freelancer Financials. And swap rates are being pushed up by a fractious global economy: oil, the Iran conflict, inflation fears, bond-market jitters. Hundreds of mortgage products have already been pulled since March.

With the BoE’s "worst-case" scenario of a 5.25% base rate by early 2027, just how high could mortgage rates climb?

https://t.co/Vc3VUijecZ

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

Applying for a role and you just feel like something is off? You are not alone.

Cloned LinkedIn recruiter profiles with full employment histories.
AI-voice phone calls trying to mimic agency consultants.
"Add me on WhatsApp to hear about the role."

Upload your CV to one portal and the calls start within weeks. And once you've engaged with a fake opportunity, your number gets sold on — the "suckers list" — and it starts all over again.

Lottie ㅤHutchins writes for ContractorUK on the specific vulnerabilities — and what to do about them.

https://t.co/GjrJ2hywH9

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

Five years of contractor policy in one sentence:

Each attempt to reduce risk in one part of the system seems to introduce new risks elsewhere.

IR35. OPW. JSL. MSC. The hirers reading the fine print are the ones paying for it.

Andy Chamberlain, head of strategic policy and advocacy at the FCSA, writes for ContractorUK on how to break the paradox — without breaking the model:

https://t.co/YTKzlMOdzb

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

A new HMRC Loan Charge settlement is on the table. The catch? Sign up and you settle all disguised remuneration matters — for good.

For some contractors that'll be a clear win with the potential to save tens of thousands. For others it won't apply, won't help much, or will introduce new complexities entirely.

LITRG's Meredith McCammond explains exactly who the McCann-inspired opportunity is built for — and the five steps all affected contractors need to be taking.

https://t.co/AtwijCY0oL

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

HMRC just lost PGMOL. Its statement? "We note the decision of the tribunal."

Could contractors finally start winning IR35 cases?

After 10 years, 5 court hearings and £583,874 in disputed tax, the FTT has ruled professional football referees are not employees — in what the judge called "not a finely balanced case."

Are you part of the squad, or the one with the whistle?

It's the question every limited company contractor should now be asking after PGMOL's win — and Rebecca Seeley Harris LLB LLM MSc, Markel Tax's Danny Batey (ex-HMRC) and former HMRC inspector Carolyn Walsh explain to ContractorUK exactly why.

https://t.co/MKtZRos0RF

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

£14.6bn UK tax gap. Around 60% of it supposedly due to small business.

HMRC's response: a new consultation on close company reporting along with four new self-assessment questions for directors that quietly went live for 2025/26.

Brookson MD Matt Fryer writes exclusively for ContractorUK on the two-pronged push, and the salary, dividend and director loan habits worth tightening now.

https://t.co/ENe4KxwWs4

[ContractorUK @itcontracting]

Some umbrellas have been operating using money owed to HMRC for their own cashflow.

Under JSL, this model is now being called into question — process, policy and assurance come second to whether the tax has actually been paid.

Professional Passport CEO Crawford Temple sets out why direct, immediate payment of tax to HMRC is the model that neutralises the risk.

https://t.co/jTOfkrc0Xi