Introduction to IR35 Workshop: Essential training for employers

Rebecca Seeley Harris, LLB (Hons) LLM MSc

Employment Status, Off-payroll & IR35 Expert , Re Legal Consulting Ltd

Rebecca is a leading expert and thought leader on employment status, off-payroll working and IR35 and is the author of CEST Explained.  Recently she won the Contracting Industry Influencer of the Year 2023 and last year won the FSB Self-employed Sole Trader of the Year.  She was also shortlisted for Outstanding Contribution to Taxation 2020-21 in the Tolley’s Taxation Awards for her campaigning work during the Covid pandemic. Rebecca set up her legal consultancy, Re Legal Consulting Ltd, when the Inland Revenue brought in the IR35 tax initiative some 23 years ago.  Since then Rebecca has specialised on IR35, off-payroll working and the employment and tax status of the self-employed and personal service companies. She works with clients nationally and internationally, the private and the public sector, with representative organisations and government.  Rebecca was seconded to the Office of Tax Simplification (an independent body of HM Treasury)  as a Senior Policy Adviser to advise the government on employment and tax status.  Reporting direct to the Chancellor, Rebecca was part of a small team of experts who drafted the Employment Status Review 2015 and the Small Company Taxation review [2016] leading on the taxation of nano companies and the self-employed.  Rebecca developed the concept of SEPA, providing a vehicle to the self-employed to be able to protect the family home.  Rebecca was also a representative on the Cross-Government Working Group on Employment Status and also published the review into the taxation of the Gig Economy. She is a member of the Tax Faculty of the ICAEW and is a consultant to the British Universities Finance Directors Group (BUFDG) and Urgent Health UK, amongst others.  She has recently written a book called CEST Explained which, as the title suggests, explains HMRC’s digital tool Check Employment Status for Tax.  Rebecca is often quoted in the press including the Financial Times, the Telegraph and the Times amongst others.  She also contributes to the professional press and writes articles on employment status. Rebecca has most recently started a campaign for the regulation of umbrella companies and the protection of umbrella company workers.  She does this voluntarily by drafting policy documents for the government to use to bring forward legislation.