Off-payroll working rule reforms are fair, says the government

Implementation of the reformed off-payroll working in the private sector will go ahead as planned next April said HMRC and the Treasury in its response to the House of Lords’ finance bill subcommittee’s report on the new regime. The reforms were due to take effect in April 2020 but were postponed until 6 April 2021 because of the uncertainty caused by Covid-19. The Lords committee had asked the government to wait until October 2020 before deciding when to implement them.

The government refuted this suggestion saying: ‘Any additional delay would have significant drawbacks; it would not address the fundamental unfairness of taxing two people differently for the same work and it would further prolong the disparity between the private and voluntary sectors and the public sector where the rules have been in place since 2017. There is a risk that this...