Port Accounting Services Limited Useful Tools

IR35 Status Indicator

Rates: 2026/27

A guided questionnaire that indicates which way your engagement leans on the employment status tests — and shows you the reasoning for every factor.

This is an indication only. It is not a status determination and it is not advice. Employment status turns on the whole contractual and working reality, is decided on case law, and cannot be settled by a questionnaire. HMRC's own tool, Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST), is the only tool HMRC will stand behind — and only if the answers given to it are accurate. Take advice before relying on any position.

About the engagement

This does not affect the indication — it decides who is responsible for making the status determination. Public authorities are always within Chapter 10, whatever their size.

The questionnaire

1. How much say does the client have over the way you do the work?Principal test

Control means the right to say what, how, when and where — not whether it is exercised day to day. See HMRC ESM0516.

2. Who decides your working hours and location?

Genuine business needs (a site, a security-controlled system) carry less weight than a client-imposed pattern.

3. Can you send a substitute to do the work?Principal test

A genuine, unfettered right of substitution is close to decisive against employment — but only if it is real in practice, not just words in the contract.

4. Has a substitute ever actually been used on this or a similar engagement?

Tribunals look at the working reality. A right never exercised is weaker but not worthless.

5. Is the client obliged to offer you work, and are you obliged to accept it?Principal test

Mutuality of obligation beyond the current contract — an expectation of continuing work — points towards employment. See HMRC ESM0543.

6. What happens if there is no work to do during the contract?

Being paid regardless looks like employment; being stood down unpaid looks like a contract for services.

7. Do you carry real financial risk on this engagement?

Fixed-price work, correcting defects unpaid, bad debt exposure, professional indemnity insurance and quoting for work all count.

8. Who provides the equipment and materials?

Client-provided laptops for security reasons carry less weight than the client providing everything you need.

9. How integrated are you into the client's organisation?

Line management responsibility, appraisals, staff benefits, internal titles and being on the org chart all point one way.

10. Do you work for other clients, and can you?

A business with several concurrent clients, its own marketing and its own premises looks like a business.

Answer the control, substitution and mutuality questions to see an indication

—

Tax year 2026/27 · figures as at 26 August 2026

Still to answer on the principal tests: Control, Personal service and substitution, Mutuality of obligation. We won't show an indication without them — they carry too much weight to leave out.

Factor by factor

  • Control(principal test)

    Not answered yet · 0 of 2 answered

  • Personal service and substitution(principal test)

    Not answered yet · 0 of 2 answered

  • Mutuality of obligation(principal test)

    Not answered yet · 0 of 2 answered

  • Financial risk

    Not answered yet · 0 of 1 answered

  • Equipment and materials

    Not answered yet · 0 of 1 answered

  • Integration (part and parcel)

    Not answered yet · 0 of 1 answered

  • Exclusivity and being in business on your own account

    Not answered yet · 0 of 1 answered

How this is calculated
  1. Control — principal testNot answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  2. Personal service and substitution — principal testNot answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  3. Mutuality of obligation — principal testNot answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  4. Financial riskNot answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  5. Equipment and materialsNot answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  6. Integration (part and parcel)Not answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  7. Exclusivity and being in business on your own accountNot answered — nothing has been assumed for this factor.Not answered yet
  8. Overall indication0 of 10 questions answered. Principal tests (control, substitution, mutuality) are weighted three times as heavily as the secondary factors.Not enough answered

Assumptions used

  • This is a weighted questionnaire, not a legal test. HMRC does not publish a scoring system; the weightings are our own judgement of the relative importance case law gives each factor.
  • The three principal tests come from Ready Mixed Concrete (South East) Ltd v Minister of Pensions and National Insurance [1968] 2 QB 497: control, personal service, and mutuality of obligation. They carry three times the weight of the secondary factors.
  • Secondary factors — financial risk, equipment, integration and exclusivity — are weighed in the round, as HMRC's Employment Status Manual describes.
  • The indicator reflects only what you have answered. Unanswered questions are ignored, not assumed.
  • It cannot read your written contract, upper-tier agency terms, or any Status Determination Statement issued to you — all of which matter to the real answer.
  • Client-size thresholds used to say who determines status: turnover over £10.2m, balance sheet over £5.1m, more than 50 employees, exceeding two of the three for 2 consecutive financial years (gov.uk/guidance/off-payroll-working-for-clients). The higher Companies Act 2006 s382 thresholds are not expected to apply for off-payroll purposes until 6 April 2027 at the earliest.

No tax rates are used on this page. Employment status is decided on case law, not figures — the only statutory numbers involved are the client-size thresholds that decide who must make the determination.

Not sure how to answer? That's usually the point worth advice on.

We'll email the factor-by-factor reasoning behind your indication, and we can review the written contract alongside how the engagement actually works — which is where status is really decided.

Book an IR35 consultation

Please read before you rely on this

  • This is not a determination. No online questionnaire — including this one — can decide your employment status for tax. Only the facts of the engagement, read as a whole, can.
  • HMRC's CEST tool exists. HMRC will stand behind a CEST result where the answers given reflect the real working arrangements. Check employment status for tax.
  • The contract and the reality both matter. A contract that says one thing while the working practices say another will be judged on the practices.
  • Who decides is a separate question. We can't say who determines status without the client's figures. A private-sector client is medium or large if it exceeds two of turnover over £10.2m, balance sheet total over £5.1m and more than 50 employees — exceeding two of the three for 2 consecutive financial years. Those figures are on the client's filed accounts at Companies House — please check them rather than guess, because they decide who carries the liability.
  • Getting it wrong is expensive. Incorrect treatment can mean back PAYE, National Insurance, interest and penalties. Please speak to us, or another adviser, before acting.

Further reading: Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) and HMRC's Employment Status Manual.

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Indication only. This questionnaire does not determine your employment status for tax, is not a Status Determination Statement, is not binding on HMRC or on any client, and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Status depends on the whole contractual and working reality, including terms this page cannot see. Getting it wrong can mean PAYE, National Insurance, interest and penalties. Use HMRC's CEST tool and take professional advice before acting.