Starting April 2026, employment agencies and end-hirers are going to bear the responsibility for ensuring that umbrella company employees pay their fair share of employment taxes. This move comes as part of a government crackdown on the tax avoidance issues associated with umbrella companies. Announced in the Autumn Budget 2024, this change could generate an additional £895 million in tax revenue for the 2026/2027 financial year.
The government highlights that recruitment agencies will now be responsible for handling PAYE (pay-as-you-earn) on payments to workers supplied via these umbrella companies. If there’s no agency involved, the end client will take on this responsibility. The aim is to protect workers from unexpected tax bills that arise from the practices of non-compliant umbrella companies.
A policy paper alongside the Budget states that new legislation will formalize these changes starting April 2026. The government estimates that these measures could save around £2.8 billion by preventing losses from non-compliant umbrella companies by 2030. Details of how this policy will be implemented will be revealed in draft legislation expected soon, ahead of its introduction in the Finance Bill 2025.
So, what does this mean for recruitment agencies? They’ll need to ensure the correct income tax and national insurance contributions are deducted from workers’ pay and sent to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Agencies supplying workers will legally be responsible for operating PAYE on those payments, whether they managed the payroll themselves or relied on the umbrella company.
If there aren’t any agencies in the mix, the client that engages the umbrella company worker will take on that obligation. The government doesn’t intend to stop agencies from using umbrella companies or intermediaries. However, agencies can no longer outsource their PAYE responsibilities.
Seb Maley, CEO of Qdos, pointed out that this shift essentially pushes agencies to monitor compliance of umbrella companies. Crawford Temple, CEO of Professional Passport, believes this policy could reshape the contracting landscape and push agencies to rethink their strategies. He predicts the next 18 months will see a rush from those behind tax avoidance schemes to profit before these new rules take effect, emphasizing the need for strong enforcement to maintain industry standards.
The landscape has changed significantly since the introduction of IR35 off-payroll rules in the public sector back in April 2017, followed by similar changes in the private sector in April 2021. Since these rules shifted the responsibility to end-user organizations to determine IR35 status, the number of contractors using umbrella companies has surged.
Contractors working through umbrella companies are treated as employees of those organizations, which exempts them from the off-payroll rules. However, many are concerned about the unregulated nature of umbrella companies. Instances where these companies have acted as fronts for tax avoidance schemes have led to severe financial consequences for contractors.
Recent HMRC statistics reveal that between 2022 and 2023, around 700,000 contractors were employed via umbrella companies, with at least 275,000 of them being engaged by non-compliant firms. In fact, in the same period, HMRC noted that £500 million was lost to disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes, predominantly through umbrella companies.