Searching for Outside IR35 job contracts in 2023

The IR35 reform in the private sector was implemented in April 2021, one year later than planned because to the COVID-19 epidemic. This meant that, similar to the public sector IR35 amendments, the IR35 status of contractors operating in the private sector was now determined by their clients.

The UK government announced significant adjustments to IR35 in the Mini-Budget of September 2022, undoing the private sector IR35 amendments of April 2021. The government's promise to repeal the IR35 reform, however, was broken on October 17, 2022, under the leadership of new chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The legislation changes from HMRC means that more contractors are now searching specifically for outside IR35 contracts and recruiters will be specifying contract type (inside or outside) on job adverts.

Technojobs have created job listings for outside contracts – Search here:

Many recruitment agencies will now specify whether a contract is outside or inside IR35 and will specify this in the job advert – allowing candidates to search for their skillset and adding in the words ‘outside IR35’ when doing a contract search from our homepage here.

Candidates can also search for Inside IR35 contracts on Technojobs. Why would I search for Inside IR35 you may ask? Well depends on the rate it may still be beneficial. Of course, for most contractors working inside IR35 is not preferential - but a higher rate would compensate for this.

The rules that went live in April 2021 meant that those contractors that fall inside of IR35 will be required to have PAYE and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) deducted at source from their income. The changes in the private sector follow similar rules regarding 'off-payroll' workers in the public sector which went live in April 2017.

You can read more detailed content on ContractorUK about Private Sector IR35 Reform.

Many companies, unfortunately, have made blanket determinations on IR35 and fail to assess contractors individually. This means contracts can very unfairly be classified as Inside IR35. Therefore, more contractors are being asked to work via umbrella companies. ContractorUK has compiled a list of companies and their determinations for working with Limited Company contractors. You can see the list here.

More and more recruiters should be classifying outside or inside on job adverts as this is the first question that will be asked by candidates. The demand for contracting in the public sector and the private sector will still be strong as companies continue in their digital transformation and large scale investment in efficiency and automation projects.

Demand for contracts is still significant despite the IR35 reforms and the COVID-19 outbreak. However, competition is likely to be much stronger for outside IR35 contracts due to being able to operate via your limited company and thus the associated benefits.

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The author for this piece is is Anthony Sherick, the MD of Technojobs.