Treasury minister to face Lords committee questions on off-payroll working rules
Friday 4 December 2020
At 4pm on Monday 7 December the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP, will give evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee on a Statutory Instrument related to off-payroll working rules (IR35).
This public evidence session will have remote participation by Mr Norman and committee members. The session will be streamed live on Parliament TV.
The topics that will be covered in this session include:
- Why Parliament has been asked to pass a law, Statutory Instrument 2020/1220, with an acknowledged error in it.
- The potential impact if the error in the SI is not corrected by April 2021.
- Why the problem with the SI has arisen.
- Steps being taken to avoid this type of problem in the future.
In April 2020 the committee published its report, ‘Off-payroll working: treating people fairly’. The committee concluded that IR35 - the Government's framework to tackle tax avoidance by those in 'disguised employment' - has not worked properly throughout its 20-year history. It called on the Government to address IR35's inherent flaws and unfairnesses.
This could be achieved by the Government keeping its promise on implementing the recommendations of the Taylor Review: that the taxation of labour should be made more consistent across different forms of employment, and that there should be a fair balance between tax, rights and risk.