Outside IR35 Consultancy Agreement – For An Individual

This is our template outside IR35 consultancy agreement for an individual.

The changes to the IR35 rules

In April 2021, the UK government introduced tax rules for the private sector, making end clients responsible for assessing whether their workers came within IR35 rules. The result of this is that many freelancers and other independent contractors are suffering unfairly. It also caused the national shortage of HGV drivers in 2021, as many of them retired, rather than become employees.

Our template aims to help protect the worker who is genuinely self-employed to retain that status.

An Outside IR35 Consultancy Agreement in favour of the Consultant

We already have a basic template for a consultancy agreement for an individual, but it is drafted in favour of the client, and not the consultant. The consultant may want to use their own consultancy agreement and send it to the client for approval. This template for an “outside ir35” consultancy agreement for an individual gives them one that is more in their favour. It also tackles IR35 issues in a more focussed way. So this should better protect the consultant and his or her tax status as a self-employed person. Hence the need for our Outside IR35 Consultancy Agreement template.

This template will suit the individual consultant more because:

1. it is more in favour of the consultant; and
2. it addresses the key issues under IR35 that could cause issues for the consultant’s tax status.

Despite this, when you use this template you should always carry out an assessment of how you work in practice. This is to ensure your working practices align with those of a genuine self-employed person. Therefore using this template is not a substitute for checking your working practices are genuine.

IR35 Issues

For more details on the tax and IR35 issues and a full preview of the guide to this template, please see our alternative template for a consultancy agreement for a company. The sister template to this page has much more commentary and detailed explanations on the change in the law, why we have created this template and how it looks to protect the contractor.

For more about IR35 from Wikipedia, click on this link.