Architect
- Ensure that you undertake and pay for your own training and development.
- Provide your own tools and equipment for the services you provide.
- Ensure that you are engaged on a specific project.
- Ensure that your contract specifies the project you are working on and has an end date.
- Ensure that you can distinguish your role from that of an employee.
If you are a manager:
- Ensure that you are only responsible for managing a project.
If you are managing people:
- Ensure that you are not managing employees of the client.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for, or involved in any disciplinary or grievance processes.
- Ensure that you do not become integrated into the client’s business.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for authorising holiday or sick leave or producing rotas/off duty schedules (refer such matters to an employee of the client).
Architectural Technician
- Ensure that you undertake and pay for your own training and development.
- Provide your own tools and equipment for the services you provide.
- Ensure that you are engaged on a specific project.
- Ensure that your contract specifies the project you are working on and has an end date.
- Ensure that you can distinguish your role from that of an employee.
- Are you undertaking 12 months of practical training required for your formal qualification.
Benefits Assessor
- Ensure that you are working on a specific body of work (for example a backlog of work).
- Ensure that there are no employees doing the same work as you. Otherwise you will need to distinguish between your work and that undertaken by the employee(s).
- Agree the exact cases that you are expected to work on at the outset of the project. This will ensure that you are not allocated further cases as they come in, which employees of the client will work on.
- Keep your engagements with each client short. Long-term assignments with a client could suggest you are filling a gap in the client’s employed workforce, which needs to be avoided under IR35.
- Try to secure as many assignments as possible with different clients to demonstrate that you are building your client base.
- Ensure that your contract specifies an end date at which time your involvement with the client will come to an end.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for managing the client’s employees.
Clerk of Works
- Try to agree your scope of work at the outset of the project. Where work is allocated to you on a daily or weekly basis, this could suggest that you are subject to the client’s control in terms of what work you carry out and when.
- Ensure that you are engaged on a specific project.
- Try to secure as many assignments as possible with different clients to demonstrate that you are building your client base.
- Ensure that your contract specifies an end date at which time your involvement with the client will come to an end.
If you are a manager:
- Ensure that you are only responsible for managing a project.
If you are managing people:
- Ensure that you are not managing employees of the client.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for, or involved in any disciplinary or grievance processes.
- Ensure that you do not become integrated into the client’s business.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for authorising holiday or sick leave or producing rotas / off duty schedules (refer such matters to an employee of the client).
Document Controller
- Ensure that you only have responsibility for designing and implementing a document control process.
- Ensure that you only have responsibility for creating the document control databases or systems for the recording and storage of documents.
- Ensure that you are not involved in the day-to-day running/administration of the process.
- Keep your engagements with each client short. Long-term assignments with a client could suggest you are filling a gap in the client’s employed workforce, which needs to be avoided under IR35.
- Try to secure as many assignments as possible with different clients to demonstrate that you are building your client base.
- Ensure that your contract specifies an end date at which time your involvement with the client will come to an end.
- Ensure that there are no other employees undertaking the same work as you. If there are employees of the client undertaking the same role as you, you will need to be able to distinguish between the work you undertake and how you are treated by the client whilst undertaking your work.
Engineer
- Ensure that your contract accurately reflects the project or body of work you are engaged to work on.
- Make sure your client thinks of you as an independent consultant and not simply an extension of their workforce.
- Invest in your company by supplying your own tools and equipment for the work you undertake. You should also undertake and pay for professional training courses to ensure that your skills are up to date and applicable for the market in which you work.
- Demonstrate that you are treated differently from your client’s employees - both in terms of the services you provide and how you perform them. Different pay and benefits will not be enough on their own. Flexible working, assignments for other clients, investing in your own training, development and equipment, working on a specific package of work for a fixed fee and/or a fixed period are all good ways of showing that you are truly independent.
- Provide a substitute as this will not only provide you with unequivocal evidence that you are not obliged to offer a personal service, and therefore cannot be a disguised employee, it can also enable you to profit further from the assignment by supplying cheaper labour to perform the services on your behalf.
- Undertake project based assignments rather than period based ones.
- Work for multiple clients and invest in your own company to demonstrate that you are in business of your own account. The more clients you work for, the easier it is to demonstrate that you are self employed, whereas only having one client as your sole source of income for a lengthy period may suggest that you are employed by the end client. To counteract this, pay for your own training, provide as much of your own equipment as possible and advertise your services in trade magazines or the Yellow Pages.
IT Consultant
- Ensure that your contract accurately reflects the project or body of work you are engaged to work on.
- Make sure your client thinks of you as an independent consultant and not simply an extension of their workforce.
- Invest in your company by supplying your own tools and equipment for the work you undertake. You should also undertake and pay for professional training courses to ensure that your skills are up to date and applicable for the market in which you work.
- Demonstrate that you are treated differently from your client’s employees - both in terms of the services you provide and how you perform them. Different pay and benefits will not be enough on their own. Flexible working, assignments for other clients, investing in your own training, development and equipment, working on a specific package of work for a fixed fee and/or a fixed period are all good ways of showing that you are truly independent.
- Provide a substitute as this will not only provide you with unequivocal evidence that you are not obliged to offer a personal service, and therefore cannot be a disguised employee, it can also enable you to profit further from the assignment by supplying cheaper labour to perform the services on your behalf.
- Undertake project based assignments rather than period based ones.
- Work for multiple clients and invest in your own company to demonstrate that you are in business of your own account. The more clients you work for, the easier it is to demonstrate that you are self employed, whereas only having one client as your sole source of income for a lengthy period may suggest that you are employed by the end client. To counteract this, pay for your own training, provide as much of your own equipment as possible and advertise your services in trade magazines or the Yellow Pages.
Manager
- Ensure that you are only responsible for managing a project.
If you are managing people:
- Ensure that you are not managing employees of the client.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for, or involved in any disciplinary or grievance processes.
- Ensure that you do not become integrated into the client’s business.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for authorising holiday or sick leave or producing rotas / off duty schedules (refer such matters to an employee of the client).
Site Inspector
- Try to agree your scope of work at the outset of the project. Where work is allocated to you on a daily or weekly basis, this could suggest that you are subject to the client’s control in terms of what work you carry out and when.
- Ensure that you are engaged on a specific project.
If you are a manager:
- Ensure that you are only responsible for managing a project.
If you are managing people:
- Ensure that you are not managing employees of the client.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for, or involved in any disciplinary or grievance processes.
- Ensure that you do not become integrated into the client’s business.
- Ensure that you are not responsible for authorising holiday or sick leave or producing rotas / off duty schedules (refer such matters to an employee of the client).
