Introduction
The UK's off-payroll working rules — better known as IR35 — just went through their most significant threshold change in years. From 6 April 2026, the financial thresholds determining whether a business is "small" (and therefore exempt from operating IR35) increased substantially, and HMRC estimates roughly 14,000 businesses will be reclassified as a result. This guide covers exactly what changed, who's affected, and what it actually means in practice.
Note: This is educational information, not tax or legal advice for your specific engagement. IR35 status determinations depend on the specific facts of a working relationship — get professional advice before making status decisions.
Table of Contents
- What IR35 Actually Is
- What Changed in 2026
- The Scale of the Change
- When Businesses Will Actually Feel It
- What Changes for a Newly-Small Business
- What This Means for Contractors
- What to Do Now
- FAQ
- Conclusion
What IR35 Actually Is
IR35 — formally the off-payroll working rules — is HMRC's mechanism for taxing contractors who provide services through an intermediary (typically a personal service company, or PSC) but who, in practice, work in a way that closely resembles being an employee. Since the 2021 private-sector reforms, medium and large businesses engaging such contractors have been responsible for determining the contractor's IR35 status and, where the engagement falls "inside IR35," operating PAYE and National Insurance contributions.
Small businesses have always been exempt from this responsibility — for a small end-user, the contractor's own PSC determines and bears responsibility for IR35 status instead, under the original Chapter 8 rules of ITEPA 2003.
What Changed in 2026
The definition of "small" for IR35 purposes is tied to the Companies Act 2006 size thresholds, and those thresholds increased from 6 April 2026:
| Threshold | Old | New |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £10.2 million | £15 million |
| Balance sheet total | £5.1 million | £7.5 million |
| Average employees | 50 | 50 (unchanged) |
A business qualifies as small if it meets at least two of these three criteria. Where the business sits within a group or joint venture structure, the small-business test applies to the aggregate turnover and balance sheet total across all connected entities, not just the individual entity.
The Scale of the Change
HMRC estimates approximately 14,000 companies may be reclassified as small as a direct result of these threshold increases — moving them out of scope of the 2021 off-payroll reforms entirely. For these businesses, this represents a meaningful reduction in compliance burden: no more IR35 status assessments, no Status Determination Statements to issue, no PAYE/NIC operation for contractors found inside IR35.
When Businesses Will Actually Feel It
This is the detail many businesses get wrong: the practical impact generally won't be felt until April 2027 at the earliest. IR35 company size is assessed by reference to the prior financial year, not the current one, and the Companies Act's two-year rule on size classification changes typically applies before a reclassification takes legal effect. A business that becomes eligible on paper in April 2026 should not assume it can stop operating IR35 obligations immediately — the transition has a real lag built in.
What Changes for a Newly-Small Business
If your business is reclassified as small:
- You are no longer required to assess whether your contractors fall inside or outside IR35
- You are no longer required to issue Status Determination Statements
- Responsibility for status determination shifts to the contractor's own PSC
- Your contractors become responsible for determining, and bearing the tax risk of, their own employment status under Chapter 8 ITEPA 2003
What This Means for Contractors
For contractors, this is where the change genuinely matters day to day: if your client becomes classified as small, you regain responsibility for determining your own IR35 status — a responsibility that had sat with the client since 2021. This isn't automatically good or bad; it means:
- More freedom in how the engagement is structured and assessed
- Renewed personal risk — you, not the client, now carry the compliance and financial risk if HMRC later disagrees with your status determination
- A real need for clear documentation, contracts, and working practices that support whatever status you determine, since the burden of proof now sits with you
What to Do Now
For businesses:
- Review whether the new thresholds move your business (or connected group) into the small-company category
- If you engage contractors through PSCs, update contractual terms to reflect the shift in IR35 obligations — including provisions on tax deductions, substitution rights, and indemnities
- Confirm hiring managers understand the practical lag — don't stop operating existing IR35 processes until the reclassification has actually taken legal effect for your business
For contractors:
- Check whether your current client is likely to be reclassified as small under the new thresholds
- If so, prepare to take on your own status determination — review your contract terms, working practices, and level of substitution rights
- Keep clear documentation supporting whatever status you determine, since disputes and reviews remain possible
Conclusion
The 2026 threshold changes are a genuine, material shift — but the lag between "reclassified on paper" and "practical effect" is exactly where businesses and contractors alike tend to get caught out, either dropping IR35 processes too early or failing to prepare for renewed personal risk in time. Whichever side of an engagement you're on, the right move now is the same: check where the new thresholds actually put you, and don't wait until April 2027 to find out the hard way.
If you'd like help reviewing your contractor engagements or understanding how this affects your specific business, get in touch for a free consultation.