One anomaly of the 2021 IR35 regulations is the position of Agencies. Agencies do not make the status determination. Agencies do not have ‘boots on the ground’ seeing if the working conditions are as originally envisaged. Yet, unless the Client fails to clear the low hurdle of using ‘reasonable care’ making the status determination, HMRC will present a bill to the intermediary agency before they bother the client. A cynic might think that HMRC was deliberately making PSCs ‘too hot to handle’ for agencies.

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A particular weakness of the ‘Outside IR35 PSC’ is that once the work starts, & everyone is ‘just getting the job done’, no one combines knowledge, control, & the incentive to keep things in order.