During the Spring 2024 Budget announcement last month, our experts here at Parasol kept our ears open for Umbrella-related updates. As we reported in our latest Budget Update:
As many of our clients and employees know, there is very little currently available regarding proper government legislation for umbrella companies and umbrella employment. One of the primary reasons why being a trusted partner of APSCo has been so important here at Parasol is because APSCo provides the compliance standards we base much of our integrity on.
Thankfully, this budget appears to have some good news for us on that front. The government has declared a commitment to protecting umbrella employees by ensuring fair, genuine competition in the market and preventing tax non-compliance. With regard to preventing tax non-compliance specifically, they have also promised an update on recent consultations on this topic during Tax Administration and Maintenance Day (18th April). Lastly, new guidance is also set to be published in the summer to support workers, recruiters, and others who use umbrella companies.
Although this all sounds promising, we would have liked to have seen more specific details, particularly regarding umbrella company standards and tax compliance concerns. Our Director of Compliance, Chris Bloor, says: “[This update is] something that I welcome, but I still remain a little bit cautious with regards to what they mean by ‘guidance’ … we still don’t have a definition of what an umbrella company is, and it’ll be interesting to see whether there will be a further consultation on that.” Despite this, we remain cautiously optimistic about what changes the next few months may bring.
You can watch Chris Bloor’s full statement in this LinkedIn post.
And now, Tax Administration and Maintenance Day is upon us. We’re going to be keeping our eyes and ears on HMRC’s channels tomorrow (18th April) to find out what updates they have regarding preventing tax non-compliance. Be sure to check back in with us for our thoughts and opinions once we’ve gathered this new information.
