ESM8430 - Opinions on contracts: the basic process

IR35 Unit role

From 1 December 2002, the IR35 Unit will give an opinion as to whether the legislation applies to a particular engagement in relation to all customer service requests. Consequently, where such a request is made locally all the relevant papers should be sent to the IR35 Unit.

Local IR35 Inspector customer service role

The local IR35 Inspector will take responsibility for reviewing the evidence and giving an opinion in the following circumstances:

• where the IR35 Unit has received a contract etc and the customer later requests a meeting to enable him/her to present his evidence in person; or
• where the customer disputes an opinion given by the IR35 Unit and it is not possible to resolve that dispute quickly, the papers will be passed to the local IR35 Inspector to follow up as necessary.

There are flowcharts at ESM8435 and ESM8440 which set out the process in more detail.