Although not mentioned in the Budget speech the other documents released on Budget day mention the possible extension of the rules for personal service companies in the public sector to workers in the private sector.
The government will consult in 2018 on how to tackle non-compliance with the intermediaries legislation (commonly known as IR35) in the private sector. The legislation which currently only applies in the public sector seeks to ensure that individuals who effectively work as employees are taxed as employees, even if they choose to structure their work through a company.
One theory is the Revenue will seek to ‘look through’ to the owner of the company and tax them as an individual.
We will be keeping a close eye on developments in the 2018.