Updated for 2026/27 · Based on HMRC Rates · Confirmed Statutory Values

IR35 Status Checker 2026/27 | Free Off-Payroll Status Assessment

Determine whether your contract and daily working arrangements fall inside or outside the UK off-payroll working rules (IR35). Answer 10 core questions based on binding employment status case law — covering substitution, control, mutuality of obligation, financial risk, and integration — for an instant indicative score and actionable next steps. 100% private, runs entirely in your browser with no tracking.

Important Disclaimer: Indicative only — not legal advice and not a substitute for HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) service or professional advice. Employment status depends on your actual working practices, not just your contract. If borderline or inside, get a contract review from a qualified adviser. Your answers never leave your browser. No account, no tracking of your responses.

Key 2026/27 IR35 Status Assessment Benchmarks

The Ready Mixed Concrete Trinity: Personal service (right of substitution), control (what, how, when, where), and mutuality of obligation (MOO) form the irreducible core of employment status under UK law.
Actual Working Practices Prevail: Under Autoclenz v Belcher, written contract clauses that do not reflect reality are disregarded by tribunals; your day-to-day engagement governs status.
Client Determination Rules (Chapter 10): Medium and large private sector clients and all public sector authorities are legally required to issue a Status Determination Statement (SDS) with reasonable care.
Small Company Exemption (Chapter 8): When contracting for small private sector businesses (turnover ≤ £10.2m, balance sheet ≤ £5.1m, ≤ 50 employees), the contractor retains responsibility for determining status.
Financial Impact (The IR35 Shock): An Inside IR35 determination reduces net take-home by typically 15%–25% due to deemed employment taxes, employer NI (15% above £5,000), and Apprenticeship Levy (0.5%).

Understanding the 10 IR35 Status Factors

The UK courts have established that determining whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor in business on their own account cannot be decided by a single test. Instead, judges apply a multi-factorial balancing exercise based on decades of case law precedents:

1. The Three Essential Pillars (Ready Mixed Concrete)

Established in the landmark Ready Mixed Concrete (South East) Ltd v Minister of Pensions and National Insurance [1968] case, three criteria must all be present for an employment relationship to exist:

Personal Service & Substitution: If you have an unfettered right to send a qualified substitute to perform the duties without client objection, personal service does not exist, and the contract cannot be one of employment.
Control: The degree of control exercised over what is done, how it is done, and when/where it is done. Genuine contractors agree deliverables and milestones, maintaining autonomy over their execution.
Mutuality of Obligation (MOO): An obligation on the client to provide ongoing work and an obligation on the worker to accept it. Independent project contracts end upon project completion without ongoing mutual commitments.

2. Financial Risk & Business on Own Account

Under Market Investigations Ltd v Minister of Social Security [1969] and Hall v Lorimer [1993], tribunals assess whether the contractor is in business on their own account:

Rectification of Defective Work: Rectifying mistakes in your own time at your own expense without additional billing is a hallmark of an independent business.
Capital Equipment & Overhead: Providing your own laptops, testing hardware, professional software licenses, and holding commercial insurances (Professional Indemnity and Public Liability).
Multiple Concurrent Clients: Marketing services publicly and delivering value across multiple client organisations demonstrates independent commercial operation.

3. Integration & “Part and Parcel”

In Stevenson, Jordan & Harrison Ltd v Macdonald & Evans [1952], the courts examined whether a person is integrated into the client’s organisation:

Being named on organizational charts, managing internal employees, having company email signatures without contractor notices, receiving staff discounts, or attending annual employee performance appraisals all suggest employee integration.
Independent contractors maintain professional distance, invoicing through their limited company and declining employee perks.

Inside vs Outside IR35: Financial & Legal Implications

Dimension	Outside IR35 (Ltd Co)	Inside IR35 (Umbrella / Fee-Payer)
Tax Status	Trading business profits subject to Corporation Tax (19%–25%)	Deemed employment income subject to PAYE Income Tax & Class 1 NI
Employer NI	Paid only on director salary (£1,135.50 on £12,570 salary); £0 on dividends	15.0% on all earnings above £5,000, deducted directly from your assignment rate
Apprenticeship Levy	£0 (paybill under £3m threshold)	0.5% deducted from gross assignment rate by umbrella companies
Income Extraction	Flexible mix of director salary and shareholder dividends	100% paid as PAYE employment salary
Business Expenses	Full deduction for wholly and exclusively incurred business costs	No travel/subsistence deductions (Chapter 10 SDC rules); 5% allowance abolished
Take-Home Pay Gap	Higher net retention (typically +15% to +25%)	Reduced net retention due to double NI and higher PAYE rates

What to Do If Your Result Is Borderline or Inside

An indicative score highlights risk areas before you commit to a commercial arrangement:

Model the Financial Impact: Use our Contractor Take-Home Calculator to simulate the exact pound-for-pound take-home difference between Outside IR35 Ltd Co and Inside IR35 Umbrella.
Obtain an Independent Professional Review: If your score falls in the borderline band (−7 to +7), have your written contract and actual working schedule reviewed by an employment status solicitor or status consultancy before work commences.
Review Status Determination Statements (SDS): For medium and large clients, review the client’s SDS. If you believe the determination failed to take reasonable care or misrepresents daily practices, initiate the statutory client-led disagreement process.
Audit Your Umbrella Payslips: If operating inside IR35 via an umbrella company, verify your deductions line-by-line using our Umbrella Payslip Checker to confirm employer costs are accurately calculated.
Read the Full Statutory Guide: For a comprehensive walkthrough of CEST tests, small company exemptions, and debt transfer provisions, consult our IR35 Rules Explained Guide.

Contractor Suite & Financial Tools

This checker connects directly with our complete suite of UK contractor calculators. Model your take-home pay across Ltd Co and Umbrella models with our Contractor Take-Home Calculator, compare an inside or outside contract offer directly against permanent employment with our Perm vs Contract Calculator, reverse-engineer your required rate with What Day Rate Do I Need?, audit umbrella payslips with our Umbrella Payslip Checker, explore mortgage options with our Contractor Mortgage Calculator, or return to the main Contractor Calculators Hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the IR35 checker accurate?

Our IR35 status checker provides an indicative assessment based on established UK employment status case law, including the Ready Mixed Concrete, Autoclenz, and PGMOL precedents. It evaluates the 10 critical factors considered by tax tribunals and HMRC status inspectors. However, no automated tool can deliver a legally binding determination. Status depends on how your contract is executed in daily practice, not merely contractual wording. For high-risk or borderline contracts, an independent contract review from a qualified employment status specialist or tax lawyer is strongly recommended.

Should I use HMRC’s CEST or this checker?

HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) is HMRC’s official tool, and HMRC commits to standing by CEST determinations provided the information entered is accurate and not contrived. However, CEST has been widely criticized by legal bodies and tax tribunals for omitting Mutuality of Obligation (MOO) from its core logic, frequently yielding an ‘unable to determine’ or artificially ‘inside’ result. Our IR35 status checker evaluates all three Ready Mixed Concrete pillars — substitution, control, and MOO — alongside commercial risk factors, serving as an independent, balanced second opinion to benchmark your position.

What is the substitution test in IR35?

The right of substitution is one of the strongest tests of self-employment under UK case law (Ready Mixed Concrete 1968). If your business holds a genuine, unfettered right to send a suitably qualified substitute to perform the services in your place — and the client cannot unreasonably reject the substitute — you cannot be deemed an employee, because personal service is absent. If substitution is subject to client interview or approval akin to hiring an employee, or if no right exists, tribunals view the engagement as requiring personal service, pushing the assessment toward Inside IR35.

Does having multiple clients put me outside IR35?

Having multiple concurrent clients is strong commercial evidence that you are in business on your own account (Hall v Lorimer 1993), but it is not automatically decisive on its own. Under UK off-payroll legislation (Chapter 10 ITEPA 2003), IR35 applies on a contract-by-contract basis. Even if your limited company serves five distinct clients during the tax year, an individual long-term engagement where you are subject to direct supervision, have no right of substitution, and are integrated into the client’s team can still be deemed Inside IR35.

Can I be inside IR35 if my contract says I’m outside?

Yes. Under the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher (2011), employment tribunals and HMRC examine the actual day-to-day reality of the working relationship rather than the written words of the contract. If your contract contains clauses stating you have an unfettered right of substitution, set your own working hours, and bear financial risk, but in daily practice the client directs your tasks, insists you personally attend their office Monday to Friday, and integrates you into internal team meetings, HMRC will disregard the contractual clauses as a sham and classify the engagement as Inside IR35.

What happens if I’m found inside IR35?

If an engagement falls Inside IR35, payments are treated as deemed employment income under PAYE rules. The fee-payer (your agency or client, or an umbrella company) must deduct employee Income Tax and employee National Insurance before paying you. Crucially, employer National Insurance (15% above £5,000 in 2026/27) and the 0.5% Apprenticeship Levy are typically deducted from your gross contract assignment rate, significantly reducing your net take-home pay by 15% to 25% compared to an Outside IR35 PSC structure. You also lose the ability to pay yourself via dividends and cannot claim travel or home-office expenses.

How often should I reassess my IR35 status?

You should formally reassess your IR35 status whenever a contract begins, upon any contract renewal or extension, and whenever your daily working practices change. Working relationships often evolve over time: a project that begins with clear deliverable milestones and full contractor autonomy can gradually drift into client task direction, integration into internal Slack/Teams channels, or attendance at staff appraisal meetings. A status determination statement (SDS) issued at the start of a multi-year engagement may no longer reflect operational reality.

Does this checker store my answers?

No. Our IR35 status checker runs entirely client-side inside your web browser. None of your answers, contract details, company names, or scores are ever sent to our servers, stored in any database, or shared with third parties or HMRC. Your assessment selections are optionally retained only on your own device using local storage (ukc_ir35_checker_v1) so you can resume your session or adjust responses without losing your progress. You can clear your saved data at any time with a single click.

Flagship