No change to 2021 Off-Payroll start-date, as 2023 extension amendment rejected

The Finance Bill was approved without division in the House of Commons earlier today; a proposed amendment by David Davis MP to delay the Off-Payroll reforms until April 2023 wasn’t even selected for debate by the Speaker. This means that the private sector Off-Payroll legislation deferral to April 2021 remains unchanged.

For the Davis amendment to pass, and presuming it had been selected for debate by the Speaker, it would have required a house majority, meaning a substantial number of Conservative MPs would need to rebel against the Government line.

No real chance of success, after Opposition backs Government

However, in the event, the Opposition didn’t stand in the way of the Finance Bill.

We were unable to vote on my #IR35 amendment this afternoon as the House authorities did not select it.

However, Labour were supporting the Government anyway, so we could not win – this time.

Watch this space.

— David Davis (@DavidDavisMP) May 19, 2020

Watch the debate

You can watch a re-run of the debate on Parliament TV – the footage starts just after 15:45

No real surprise, and stay prepared for April 2021

Speaking to us just after the debate, Dave Chaplin, Director of the Stop The Off-Payroll Tax Campaign, said: “It’s staggering that, after the extensive Lords Report which stated that the legislation was riddled with flaws, that the Financial Secretary of the Treasury claimed today that “It’s hard to see any genuine rationale for any further delay.”

“Still, we now head to the Committee and Report Stage, and there are two further votes, so it’s not game over yet.”

Seb Maley, CEO of IR35 experts, Qdos, said:

“It’s a big disappointment that IR35 reform will not be delayed, but then again it’s of no real surprise that the changes will go ahead next year. The Government has buried its head in the sand when it comes to IR35, continually ignoring compelling arguments that call for a rethink of the legislation.

“The Coronavirus crisis also means raising tax receipts has become a priority for the Treasury – even if that means contractors may be wrongly forced into ‘zero-rights employment’ as a result of the reforms.”

And Mr Davis says the Government should now follow up on the urgent overhaul of IR35 recommended by the House of Lords in late-April.

The government is right to postpone the #IR35 reforms – but it should have been for longer.

We now must use this time to have a wholesale review of the entire system. This was as called for by the @LordsEconCom and as I argued in my @HouseofCommons speech earlier this afternoon pic.twitter.com/j5LnrRNae4

— David Davis (@DavidDavisMP) May 19, 2020