Services Procurement — the IR35 Danger You Overlooked

Some time ago, you learnt that IR35 would apply to the private sector, and you immediately started preparing. You examined your contingent workforce, spoke to your suppliers, and built a framework to determine tax status repeatably and to a high standard.

I imagine you’re mostly prepared for April 2021. But there’s one area you may have overlooked: services procurement.

Problem #1: Getting Insight Into Services Procurement Isn’t Easy

Our research shows that statements of work (SOWs) are often just a fixed price for a block of workers for a block of time. They commonly contain contingent workers in disguise, and those workers may fall within the scope of IR35.

Can you guarantee that none of your SOWs contain day rates? Would you bet your personal savings that none of your SOWs contain worker titles?

Less than 20 percent of leaders we’ve spoken with are confident their statements of work are risk-free.

Problem #2: The IR35 Clock Is Ticking

The only way to ensure IR35 compliance is to locate all your statements of work and examine them one by one.

You can assign a team to this project, but it will take months to complete. SOWs can comprise anywhere from a single page to a few hundred. Human workers can make only 40 hours a week of progress, and that’s if they never fall ill or miss work.

Problem #3: You Can’t Ensure Accuracy

Remember when I asked if you would bet your personal savings on your statements of work compliance? In this case, would you bet your personal savings that your human team didn’t miss one risk? I hope not.

Even the most exacting professionals get eye fatigue or temporarily lose focus. At the end of this painstaking, months-long process, you still can’t be sure if hidden risks remain.

Problem #4: You Won’t Have Time to Update Your SOWs

Until you’ve measured your “as-is risk”, you can’t build a tailored remediation and go-forward strategy. Let’s say that your team completes its analysis on time. Everything seems to be falling into place. Except that you now have only a few short months to act on the identified risks.

First, you’ll need to rewrite any non-compliant SOWs and reclassify associated workers. Second, you’ll need to develop a new vision for preventing non-compliant SOWs. You’ll need to enact new policies and gather new tools to implement that vision. Finally, you must train others to apply this vision to every RFx, contract, extension, and addendum.

The Solution to Your IR35 SOW Risk

Taking this project on yourself will be difficult. Working with a partner could help, but only if they have the right technology.

That’s why AGS’ solution builds IR35 thinking into the way that you procure services. We offer the three elements you need:

1. Technology: Our proprietary system accepts SOWs in any form and analyses them for more than 250 fields, including red flags such as worker titles, day rates, and start and end times.
2. People: You’ll work directly with a dedicated team who have been in your shoes and know what you need.
3. Process: Instead of designing and revising a plan, you can focus on deploying our customisable framework. 

We identify areas of risk across your SOWs in just four weeks. And we will help you mitigate those risks in just eight weeks.