Fairer Tax Relief Campaign – Campaign proposal and benefits

We propose simplification. Firstly a policy decision that all agency workers should be entitled to tax relief on home to work travel, subject to suitable limitations. Secondly all agency workers should be so entitled, the definition of an agency worker being similar to that contained in the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 but avoiding any complicated criteria based on status or SDCM. The availability of the tax relief to all agency workers on this basis would

  • encourage working through agencies by allowing assignment opportunities further away from home to agency workers, and thus more assignment opportunities
  • maximise the availability of agency workers to hirers needing temporary staff
  • provide a level playing field for all agency workers so precluding the attraction to avoidance schemes or the use of artificial status and restoring equality and fairness for everyone: reliefs could be easily implemented by the agency against easily understandable criteria, thus supporting all agency workers rather than just those encouraged to claim: easily understandable criteria would remove the need for expensive software solutions and reduce and thereafter limit administration cost for agencies and HMRC
  • in conjunction with other legislation, crystallise the status of the agency workers as distinct from an employee of the hirer so limiting the potential for claims in the Employment Tribunal against hirers based upon allegations of employment status
  • not affect the ability of a company or a genuinely self-employed person from applying other tax rules save in respect of qualifying expenses which must be the same for all agency workers
  • enhance the UK’s appeal through the availability of a flexible and more easily regulated workforce supported by policy, not driven by tax avoidance schemes and encourage inward investment nationally and from overseas
  • distinguish the agency supply industry from being seen as the harbinger of tax avoidance schemes thus minimising negative perceptions of the industry
  • minimise administration for agencies and HMRC, in particular minimising the need for invasive and costly HMRC investigation with a consequent reduction in cases before the tax commissioner or higher courts
  • remove the need for overarching employment contracts as insisted upon by HMRC, the entitlement to expenses being an entitlement by virtue of agency worker status
  • help distinguish between genuine businesses and reliance upon artificial status given that agencies invariably rely upon an individual’s personal background and criteria, and genuine businesses normally find work without using an agency
  • avoid the need for HMRC to create complex and potentially conflicting guidance to explain complicated meaning of the laws that have no binding precedent, so retaining the separation of powers principle whereby laws are set by Parliament and not by the executive
  • be a simple platform and policy which the UK could rely upon as a guiding principle for the future.

Your voice matters. Get it heard – click here to support our campaign today. For more information contact ARC on 01273 777997.

Why are the tax changes unfair?

Campaign proposal and benefits

Details of proposed tax relief

Impact of rules from 6th April 2016