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HMRC off-payroll working enforcement has changed its emphasis. For years the question was whether an end-hirer had reached the right IR35 decision on a contractor. Now the question is whether the organisation can show how that decision was made, and produce the evidence behind it when asked.
Writing for ContractorUK on 6 July 2026, Danny Batey set out where the taxman’s compliance activity now sits. The message is plain. Off-payroll working enforcement stays an active priority, the scrutiny is more data-led than it was, and it is less forgiving of thin evidence.
That shift matters especially to the people who carry the liability. Under the rules, the end-client that engages a contractor through an intermediary is the party that has to reach the status decision and stand behind it. So the practical test is no longer just the answer. It is the working that led to the answer.
What HMRC’s off-payroll working enforcement signals add up to
The policy backdrop is quieter than the enforcement one. In a written parliamentary answer at the end of June 2026, the Treasury confirmed there are no current plans for a further review of the IR35 reforms, and that a promised consultation on employment status will come only in due course, according to the ContractorUK report.
Read that alongside the enforcement stance and the direction is clear enough. The rules are staying put, and the effort is going into applying them. For end-hirers and recruitment agencies, off-payroll working enforcement leaves no reprieve to wait for. The task is to get the process right and keep it evidenced.
Why off-payroll working compliance is never a one-off task
The sharpest line in the ContractorUK piece is also the least glamorous. Assessing IR35 is not a single exercise that can be filed in a drawer and forgotten. Where the end-client sits above the small-company threshold, the off-payroll rules apply every time it engages a worker through an intermediary, directly or through a chain. Off-payroll working enforcement assumes those rules bite on every engagement, not once.
Working practice drifts. A contractor taken on for a defined task under light oversight can, over months, become integrated, directed and supervised. The status determination signed at the start no longer matches how the work is really done. Nothing on paper changed. The facts underneath it did.
That is why a status call made once, at onboarding, is a weak control. The label follows the practice, and the practice moves.
What an off-payroll working enforcement check looks at
Here the source is specific, and it is worth heeding. In an off-payroll working enforcement check, HMRC is interested in how the status decisions were made in practice, and what process the end-client used to produce accurate Status Determination Statements. What information was gathered, and whether contracts and actual working practices were both considered, sits at the centre of the enquiry.
HMRC has also been collecting the raw material for some time. The ContractorUK piece describes a “Status and Off-Payroll Working Questionnaire” that asks employers to set out their engagement models and the types of worker they use, from limited-company contractors and umbrella workers to sole traders and PAYE agency staff. Receiving one does not mean an investigation is open. It does mean the information is being used to sort higher-risk cases from lower-risk ones.
The lesson for a board is short. If an officer asks to see how a determination was reached, the file needs to answer.
The public sector warning inside the Treasury’s letter
The public sector is where off-payroll working enforcement has already bitten. The ContractorUK analysis puts the combined tax and National Insurance liabilities assessed against government departments for mishandled status decisions at roughly £400 million, and reports that in June 2026 HM Treasury wrote to accounting officers of central government bodies about their tax arrangements.
The thrust of that letter, as the source describes it, reaches past IR35. Public bodies are expected to hold a clear picture of their supply chains, assign accountability, and show compliant engagements across departments and third-party suppliers. The concern it signals is that some are not doing the due diligence expected of them.
For public sector buyers and their board directors, that is a governance point as much as a tax one. The wider pressure is real too: HMRC’s latest figures, published on 23 June 2026, put the UK tax gap for 2024/25 at £59.2 billion, with small businesses estimated to account for the largest share.
Check, Act, Review: due diligence as a live discipline
This is where an assurance framework earns its place. The OPRaaS Labour Supply Chain Assurance course sets out supplier due diligence through three linked steps in its Module 4 material: Check, Act and Review. The framework follows HMRC’s own guidance on applying supply-chain due-diligence principles, and it treats off-payroll status as one obligation among several, not a stand-alone form.
Check
Check means identifying the legal obligations that attach to a supplier or engagement. The Module 4 content lists them together: PAYE, VAT, CIS, right-to-work, minimum wage, agency worker parity and off-payroll working where it applies. It also asks a harder question about tax, namely whether deductions are actually reaching HMRC, rather than simply appearing on a payslip.
Act
Act means doing the due diligence and writing it down. Investigate the supplier’s compliance, record what was found, and take prompt steps where a risk shows, whether that is working with the supplier to resolve it or removing them. The course is blunt on one point. You may use third parties to help, but the contracting organisation stays accountable for the choice.
Review
Review means treating the work as ongoing rather than annual. Reassess supplier compliance and risk on a regular cadence, update the approach when the rules or the business change, and feed findings from audits back into the process. That is the same continuity HMRC looks for in an off-payroll check.
How the OPRaaS Virtual Compliance Director keeps status evidenced
This is the work the OPRaaS Virtual Compliance Director (OPRaaS VCD) platform is built to carry. It embeds senior governance leadership into an end-hirer or agency without the cost of a full-time director, and builds audit-ready controls across right-to-work, IR35, CIS, GLAA and modern-slavery duties that stay current as workers and suppliers change.
Two examples make it concrete. A contractor’s off-payroll status is assessed against the real working practice, recorded with the reasons behind the determination, and re-checked on a risk-based cadence, so a drift from outside to inside IR35 is caught rather than surfaced in an enquiry. Each supplier agency and umbrella is monitored against Companies House for director and ownership changes, and against Creditsafe for credit-risk moves such as county court judgments and financial-strength downgrades.
OPRaaS, On-Pay-Roll-as-a-Service, is a systemised governance and workforce management partner for organisations that rely on temporary, contractor and contingent labour, from recruitment agencies and end-hirers to umbrella companies, managed service providers and public sector buyers. It is approved on the UK Government Commercial Agency (formerly Crown Commercial Service) frameworks including RM6310 Audit & Assurance Services (Lots 2 & 4), RM6219 and RM6237 Learning & Training Services DPS.
A status decision is only as strong as the evidence behind it
The change in HMRC off-payroll working enforcement is not really about a new rule. It is about a higher standard of proof. An IR35 determination that exists but cannot be explained is now the weak point, whichever end of the labour supply chain holds it.
So the useful reframing is this. A status decision is a moment. Assurance is a habit. The organisations that will come through a check comfortably are the ones that can assure their labour supply chain by showing not just the answer they reached, but the process and evidence that stand behind it.
Off-payroll enforcement has moved from the decision to the evidence. A status call kept current and documented is worth far more than one that was simply made and filed.
Compliance is your asset. Evidenced daily.
Read next
“Own your compliance as an asset.“
Drawing on Danny Batey, published on 6 July 2026 for ContractorUK; HMRC guidance on Check Employment Status for Tax and on applying supply-chain due-diligence principles; the Treasury’s June 2026 letter to accounting officers on tax arrangements; HMRC’s Measuring Tax Gaps figures for 2024/25 published on 23 June 2026; and the OPRaaS LSCA Self-Certification Course Module 4.
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This article is editorial commentary by OPRaaS Limited (On-Pay-Roll-as-a-Service), drawing on published industry reporting. It is general information, not legal, tax, employment or compliance advice. Obligations vary by organisation and engagement. Speak to a qualified professional before acting on any specific position.