Lobbyists at Stop The Off-Payroll Tax campaign are calling on contractors to get behind them and focus on halting the IR35 reforms of 2021.

The call comes as the reforms, contained in the latest Finance Bill, reach the committee stage in Parliament.

Directly addressing contractors via Twitter, the lobby group said: “Please don’t confuse MPs by asking them to table amendments to get public sector IR35 Off-Payroll rules suspended. They’re not in the Finance Bill.”

MPs can still table amendments to the 2021 reforms at the next ‘consideration’ stage, but a suspension of the 2017 reforms is not possible via the current bill.

Instead, campaigners who wish to inform MPs of the adverse impact of the 2017 framework are being encouraged to do so, but only as a reason to stop it’s April 2021 variant.

The ICAEW has already reminded contractors that to bring about change in the private sector, changes to the reforms in the public sector would need to be made first. It believes the four most fundamental areas of change are:

• PSCs being made to pay Employer NI;
• Aligning employment and social security rights;
• Statutory payments for the IR35-caught; and
• HMRC strategy.

The ICAEW tax faculty said: “Given that many private sector organisations have already incurred significant costs and implemented systems changes…the Government has a unique opportunity to consider whether the rules currently being legislated will work as intended, and to act upon the evidence of those businesses.”