Does IR35 apply to you?
Most UK freelancers worry about IR35. Many never needed to. One question settles it.
How do you trade?
Educational content, not legal or tax advice. Nothing you select here is stored. HelloNoa is not affiliated with HMRC.
One question settles it.
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Pick the one that matches how you invoice clients today. The answer changes everything about IR35.
IR35 does not apply to you.
The off-payroll rules only bite when an intermediary sits between you and the client. As a sole trader you contract directly, so there is no intermediary and no IR35. One caveat: an intermediary is not always a limited company, so if you work through a partnership or someone else's company, different rules can apply. If a client form asks inside or outside, say IR35 doesn't apply because you're a sole trader, and ask for a "not applicable" option.
Need the paperwork that backs this up? Proposals, solicitor-written contracts and invoices, in one place.
What still matters: general employment-status rules decide whether a specific engagement looks like employment, and that risk mainly sits with your client. Solid contracts help everyone, which is where a proper freelance contract earns its keep.
IR35 can apply to your engagements.
Each contract is either inside or outside the rules. The factors below are where every assessment starts. This page explains them; it deliberately does not guess your status, because working practices decide it, and HMRC's CEST tool is the only answer HMRC will stand by, provided your information is accurate and follows its guidance.
Control: who decides how the work gets done?
Points towards employment: the client sets your hours, dictates your methods, moves you between tasks like a manager would.
Points towards independence: you decide how, when and where you deliver, and the client buys an outcome rather than your time.
Substitution: could someone else do it?
Points towards employment: the client hired you personally and nobody else may deliver the work.
Points towards independence: a genuine, usable right to send a qualified substitute at your own cost. A clause that exists only on paper carries little weight.
Mutuality of obligation: the low bar
Once the heavyweight factor, now mostly a formality: since the Supreme Court's PGMOL ruling (2024), being paid to do the work personally usually satisfies it within each engagement.
What actually decides borderline cases today is the whole picture: discrete projects with defined ends, multiple clients, your own kit and insurance, real financial risk. In short, whether you are in business on your own account.
Rules last checked 30 October 2026: gov.uk off-payroll guidance, HMRC manual ESM10006A, CEST.
FAQs
Honest answers.
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Does IR35 apply to sole traders?
No. IR35 (the off-payroll working rules) only applies when you work through an intermediary, usually your own limited company. As a sole trader you contract directly, so IR35 itself cannot apply to you. General employment-status rules still decide whether a specific engagement looks like employment, but that risk mainly sits with your client, not you.
What is IR35 in plain English?
IR35 asks one question: if your limited company did not exist, would you look like an employee of your client? If yes, the engagement is 'inside IR35' and gets taxed like employment. If you would still look like a genuinely independent business, it is 'outside IR35'.
What are the main IR35 status factors?
The classic three are control (who decides how, when and where you work), the right of substitution (can you send someone else) and mutuality of obligation. Since the Supreme Court's PGMOL ruling in 2024, mutuality and control are treated as low threshold tests that most engagements pass, so borderline cases now turn on the whole picture: whether you genuinely operate as a business on your own account. Working practices matter more than what the contract says.
Who decides whether an engagement is inside IR35?
Public sector clients, and medium or large private sector clients, decide and must give you a status determination statement. If the client is a small private sector company, your own limited company decides instead. The size limits for 'small' went up in April 2025, but HMRC says the earliest tax year that can change a client's status is 2027/28. For 2026/27 the older limits still decide.
Where can I get a definitive IR35 answer?
HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool gives HMRC's view of an engagement, and HMRC will stand by the result as long as the information you give is accurate and in line with its guidance. For engagements where real money turns on the answer, take professional advice. No online tool, including this page, can determine your status for you.
More questions? See all FAQs or email us.
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