The Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling made by the High Court last year that IR35 is not contrary to European Community Law. This ruling is to do with those people who "employ" self employed individuals on a contract basis.
For example building contractors who employ sub-contractors. In simple terms the original ruling for IR35 is the fact that if a self employed person only conducts activities for business then they are technically an employee of that business and both the "employee" and the "employer" are therefore subject to all the normal rules on pay and liability such as the fee for the sub-contractor is regarded as pay or salary under PAYE rules and subject to normal employees and employer rules such as employers paying Employers National Insurance Contributions on that pay.
The Inland Revenue have advised that affected individuals have until the 31 January 2002 to settle outstanding income tax and national Insurance payments for the tax year 2000/2001 or else penalties may be incurred. Please don't forget to pay on time!
As a footnote, the Professional Contractors Group intend to continue to fight the ruling by trying to establish precedents with individual test cases.
If you are unsure or would like to know more about IR35 please visit Accounts Adviser.com or contact us.