IR35 - Removal of status concession for Associate Dentists
Under a current concession, HMRC allow associate dentists to be treated as self-employed. This concession will be withdrawn from the 6th April 2023 meaning that the dental practice itself will need to determine an associate dentist's employment status using the normal status tests.
Associate dentists typically do not own their own practice, instead working on a profit sharing basis with a dentist practice under a licence agreement to see patients and use the practice equipment and surgery.
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Since IR35 was introduced, associate dentists have operated using standard British Dental Association (BDA) and Dnetal Practitioners Association (DPA) agreements to ensure the income of dental associates is treated as trading income and reportable on their own tax returns, subject to income tax and Class 2&4 NIC.
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The advantage of this for a dental practice is that you do not need to account for Class 1 employer NIC for the associate's income or report and pay tax under PAYE.
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What is changing
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From April 2023, HMRC have announced that they will withdraw the paragraph in their guidance which mentions the BDA and DPA standard associate agreements. As a result, all associate dentists will need to have had their employment status reviewed by the dental practice on a case by case basis, the same as any other worker.
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If HMRC undertake a review, practice owners will be expected to be fully up to speed with the rules and to be able to demonstrate that associates have been treated correctly as self-employed for tax purposes. If HMRC is able to successfully reclassify a self-employed person as employed for tax purposes, the practice would be required to put them on payroll and thus subject to tax and NIC under PAYE, including Class 1 employers NIC. On the other hand, if the review suggest that the associate is genuinely self-employed, there would be no changes to the current arrangements.
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As with the change to IR35, HMRC will not be using this change to open up retrospective enquiries into employment status, but associates and those engaging them should ensure, going forward, that they have taken steps to minimise risk should HMRC enquire.
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It is recommended that you begin to identify any workers that are not paid via the payroll and under take reasonable steps to demonstrate that your associates have been correctly treated as self-employed.
The full IR35 contract review for Dentists includes:
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Our expert opinion on whether your contractual arrangement is inside our outside IR35
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A review of the written agreement
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A review of your working practices
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A concise list of recommendations to improve compliance
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An in-depth report o the written agreement
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Support and advice from experienced IR35 consultants with a deep understanding of the dental industry
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