One of the bigger items on the tax agenda is extending the so-called engagers legislation to the private sector. This was introduced for the public sector in April 2017 and essentially requires that a public sector user of services make an assessment whether the provider is a quasi-employee. If the individual is a quasi-employee then the engager (or an intermediate agency) must operate PAYE. We thus have three categories of ‘service provider’: employees of the engager; quasi-employees (where PAYE/national insurance contributions (NIC) applies but not necessarily other employment consequences); and the self-employed.

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