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Will CEST struggle with this engagement?

Free tool · Contractors and agencies

Ten questions about how the work is really done. It shows which way the answers lean and which ones HMRC's own status tool is likely to be unable to settle — so you can pin them down first.

0203 026 7421

HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool is the one whose results HMRC stands behind, as long as the information given is accurate. It is also the one that, in HMRC's own published usage data, could not reach a determination for about one in five users. The difference is usually an answer nobody had pinned down: whether a substitute would really be accepted, who decides how the work is done, what happens if it goes wrong.

This triage asks about the same working practices and flags the answers that are still uncertain. It is not a status determination, it does not say inside or outside IR35, and it is no substitute for the official tool or for the client's status determination statement. Use it before them, not instead of them.

Nothing you enter is sent anywhere unless you ask for a copy by email.

IR35 working-practices triage

1. Does the contract give you the right to send someone else to do the work in your place?
2. Would the client actually accept a substitute of your choosing, with suitable skills?
3. Does the client decide how the work is done?
4. Does the client decide when and where you work, beyond what the job itself needs?
5. Would you put right faulty work in your own time and at your own cost?
6. Do you provide significant equipment or materials at your own cost, without being reimbursed?
7. Are you paid a fixed price for a result, rather than by the hour or day?
8. Are you treated like staff — a line manager, appraisals, staff benefits, a staff email signature?
9. Do you work for other clients, or market your business, while this engagement runs?
10. Is the client obliged to offer you further work, and are you obliged to accept it?

The detail behind it

Where this leads

The things people ask before they ring

No. Every result is on the page as soon as you press the button. If you want a copy, you can email it to yourself, and we only follow up if you tick the box that says we can.

No. It is a triage, not a status determination. It shows which way your answers lean and which ones are still uncertain. The result to rely on comes from HMRC's own tool, used with accurate facts, or from the client's status determination statement.

HMRC's published usage data showed about one in five results as unable to determine. That usually happens when the answers on substitution, control or financial risk are unclear, which is exactly what this triage asks you to pin down first.

Fifteen minutes will tell you where you stand

Whether you're a contractor after your next job, an agency placing across Europe, or a business that needs people found, paid and funded — start with a conversation. It costs nothing and we'll tell you honestly if we can't help. No form to fill in first.

0203 026 7421Email us

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