For those amongst you who get a dopamine hit from umbrella company and tax compliance, you will have been buzzing to hear about the government’s long-awaited release of their findings from the 2023 Umbrella company consultation. You can read it here.
It was released on the 18th April and many will have been thinking ‘is that it’? And you’d be right! The latest update doesn’t do a lot in terms of moving the compliance piece along. It’s 3 paragraphs that state:
An introduction stating the government’s commitment to compliance
Confirmation new guidance will follow later this year
That the government will release their own payslip checking tool
Acknowledgment that they are still seeking at introducing an additional due diligence requirement
Clipper Contracting Group submitted their reply to the consultation last year and were advocates of a measured and proportionate set of additional compliance regulations that would weed out bad actors in our sector whilst ensuring the administrative burden was not too high.
There is still no answer to defining what an umbrella company is and no new legislative regulations.
The umbrella sector has certainly been moving in the right direction in recent years and HMRC has played a small part by clamping down on mini umbrella company set-ups. But there is a long-way to go to prevent bad actors phoenixing or running schemes that are non-compliant.
Perhaps a looming election got in the way but we will look forward to the HMRC guidance that will be published later this year.
If you want to read the original umbrella consultation, you can read it here.