Now You See It, Now You Don't!

On the 3rd of February HMRC let slip its much sought-after guidance on off-payroll working in the private sector, only to ‘un-publish’ it a few moments later and replace it with a blank screen.

ContractorUK reports that other than white space where the guidance was live momentarily, mid-morning visitors to HMRC’s Employment Status Manual site could only see: "Guidance withdrawn 3 Feb 2020."

Underneath the message -- displayed by clicking 33 new draft HMRC guidance manuals (titles still visible), a clearly up-against-it HMRC spluttered: ‘Will be republished in due course.’

By the afternoon, the six words were replaced with: “HMRC is committed to publishing an updated employment status manual reflecting the April 2020 reform changes as soon as possible.”

Asked what happened by ContractorUK, a HMRC spokesman responded by reading out the very same statement, but then admitted the ‘update’ was due to a “publishing error.”

In the event any of you have screen shots of the redacted pages, please feel free to share them!

Tax does have to be taxing.


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