Contractors said they had been offered at least one way of managing their tax which was described to them in a way that suggests it may have been a potential tax avoidance scheme, HMRC research has found.

This figure rose to 48% for contractors in the financial and insurance industry, while 37% agreed with the statement that ‘a lot of contractors think it’s ok to reduce how they pay in tax using any method that doesn’t actually break the law’.

Higher earning umbrella contractors were significantly more likely to have been offered a potential avoidance scheme than others, particularly those who earned £50,000 or more per year, with nearly half (46%) of them saying they had been made aware of the advantages of avoidance schemes.