NHS Improvement U-Turn on IR35 status of Locum GPs

GP Online is reporting that NHS Improvement has reversed its advice that GP practices should treat all locum GPs as being subject to IR35 and the new off payroll rules for the public sector.

It should be noted that NHS Improvement’s comments were always advisory in nature and that neither the IR35 rules nor the new off payroll rules in the public sector (both from HMRC) required GP practices to adopt a blanket approach to treating all locum GPs as employees for the purposes of payroll, tax and employer’s NI contributions.

NHS Improvement’s u-turn brings their advice back in line with HMRC guidance.

If any of your locum GPs provide services through a limited company, they will still need to be added to the payroll for tax and NI purposes and the recent announcement from NHS Improvement will not change that.

Where your locums are genuinely self-employed and have contracted with you as a sole trader, directly, then you do not need to add them to the payroll. It would be a useful opportunity, however, to review how you deal with these people on a day to day basis, because the facts of the relationship could cause HMRC to decide they are not genuinely self-employed at some point in the future (ie on audit or inspection), walking you into liabilities, both historic and future.

Credit to GP Online and Haymarket Media Group Limited for the story referred to in this article, click here for the full story.

To discuss your specific requirements, please contact Donna Anderson, an employment lawyer in our Healthcare Team at donna.anderson@sintons.co.uk or 0191 226 3709 for more information.