Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) Tool

The Check Employment Status for Tax tool gives you HMRC’s view of a worker’s employment status, based on the information you provide. It can also be used to check if changes to contractual terms or working arrangements may alter a worker’s employment status.

You do not have to use the tool to make employment status decisions, but it can help you decide:

  • the employment status of a worker or an individual you engage or represent
  • if the off-payroll working (IR35) rules apply to a contract
  • if HMRC will consider you as employed or self-employed for tax and National Insurance contributions purposes, if you have (or expect to have) a work contract

There must be a contract in place to see whether the engagement is classed as employment or self-employment. The tool assumes there is, or will be, a contract in place.

HMRC will stand by all determinations given by the tool, as long as the information you give remains accurate. You can use the tool again if:

  • there has been a change to an existing contract or service agreement
  • the information you originally provided is no longer accurate

You do not need to know who the worker is to use the tool – you’ll still get a result. You can use the tool again when a worker’s identity is known. This may enable the tool to provide a determination where the result was ‘unable to determine’.

Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) Tool: This webinar is designed to help you understand how HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax tool, or CEST for short, can help you make robust and accurate status determinations.

Register here

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