This article applies when you are hiring a freelancer that is operating via a Personal Services Company (PSC) and when you have chosen to receive a Status Determination Statement (SDS) by using the free online tool from HMRC, called Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST).
The YunoJuno platform will only ask you for an SDS when the freelancer you are hiring has been deemed to be operating for a Personal Services Company by us, but HMRC's tool is not aware of this and so the first few questions can be confusing for users new to the tool. I
If you follow the steps below, the result will be a PDF containing the assessment decision which you will be able to upload to the YunoJuno platform to continue through to the contract offer stage.
Steps
Visit the tool in your browser
Here is the link to access HMRC's CEST tool, or search "HMRC CEST".]
After reading, press "Accept & continue".
Answer "What do you want to find out?"
This question must be answered correctly to get the right decision for IR35 (which only relates to PSCs). The correct answer for our purposes is "If the off-payroll working rules (IR35) apply to a contract".
Answer the next question
The freelancer you are hiring operates through a PSC (Limited company) and thus you must answer "Yes" to this question.
Complete the rest of the assessment
You will now be on the right path to answer the assessment and get the correct answer for the YunoJuno platform. Simply follow the steps and answer the questions truthfully to the best of your knowledge.
Once complete, download the SDS
The final page will have a clear block indicating the assessment result.
You will find the Status Determination Statement download link further down the page, the button is currently labelled "Get a copy of this result".
Using that button will download a PDF. Then when our platform asks for the file, you can upload it along with selecting the assessment result:
Outside IR35 ("Off-payroll working rules (IR35) do not apply")
Inside IR35 ("Off-payroll working rules (IR35) apply")