For many of us in the industry it will be of little surprise to hear that HMRC’s online Contractor Employment Status Tool (CEST) has found to provide inaccurate results – again.
The Contractor Calculator website recently ran a test where they entered details from twenty four published tax tribunal results, and the tool failed to reflect the tribunals findings in two of the cases. Whilst that is only two, that’s pretty near to an 8% failure rate, and this is in spite of HMRC saying that the tool has been “rigorously tested during development in conjunction with HMRC’s lawyers against live and settled cases, and reflects employment status case law”. Or not. As the case may be.
What’s the solution?
Well you could start by discussing the issue with an independent company that has been protecting contractors employment rights for over 17 years, who have nearly fourty clients who have been inspected by HMRC whilst using our systems without challenge, and who offer a fully guaranteed service….
