RC Fornax, the foremost provider of ultra-efficient work package solutions primarily for the defence industry, has partnered with Kingsbridge Insurance for more than two years to protect themselves and their clients against the perils of IR35.

Whether it’s defence or other high-profile clients, RC Fornax has exclusively used teams of contractors to deliver time critical projects by creating bespoke work package solutions under Statement(s) of Work and mitigating all the risks surrounding IR35.

As an “end client” in respect to IR35, RC Fornax holds the responsibility of determining IR35 status for its workforce. Their partnership with Kingsbridge safeguards them in three essential ways; the IR35 status tool, insurance cover and the IR35 health check facility. All of which ensure RC Fornax successfully remain compliant and protected against any potential HMRC investigation.

Daniel Clark, Executive Director at RC Fornax explains in more detail, “This multifaceted IR35 solution not only provides us with the ability to do status determinations in a very robust way, there’s also the facility to actually underwrite everything that’s taking place with insurance products - be it tax investigation and loss, Professional Indemnity, Public Liability, or Employers Liability, which are required by all the contractors we use.”

He continued, “The status tool makes it easy to track where contractors are in the assessment process and what their insurance status is, making it an important compliance tool in our armory. The visual management of the process, and the traffic light system for understanding who is and is not compliant is really good.”

By providing RC Fornax contractors with business insurance, and notifying them of any lapses or cancellations, Kingsbridge gives RC Fornax peace of mind that their contractors remain fully compliant and accurately insured.

“Most contractors already understand that they need insurance cover,” explains Daniel. But in the new world of IR35, that need is more prescient than ever to ensure all parties are protected.”

The Kingsbridge health check presented RC Fornax with opportunities for improvement around IR35, offering tremendous value via a non-intrusive process. Paul Reeves, CEO at RC Fornax commented, “This style of audit and report has given us some very important reassurance that yes, we believe things are going the right way. Getting that view from an independent expert is very valuable indeed.”

To help build confidence with both clients and contractors in their onboarding and IR35 process, RC Fornax uses the Kingsbridge Status Tool. As Paul explained,“When you’re demonstrating the process, we use for determining a contractor’s status, the visual elements of the status tool just add credence to everything you are doing. It gives a much better outcome on determinations compared to HMRC’s CEST tool. If there is a case that is borderline, then we just pick up the phone and talk to our IR35 expert at Kingsbridge.” 

Paul closed by saying, “For us we’ve had nothing but positive experiences working with Kingsbridge. We found everyone very easy to deal with, they go above and beyond and understood what we were about, what we were doing, and what we are looking to achieve.”
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About Kingsbridge Insurance

Founded in 2001, Kingsbridge has grown from its roots as a specialist broker to become one of the leading providers of contractor insurance, consulting and IR35 compliance to contractors, recruiters, accountancy firms and end clients. Kingsbridge tackles the specialist needs of this rapidly growing sector, both in the UK and Europe. The Kingsbridge Group has also expanded with a SaaS offering for recruiters and end clients, providing an onboarding tool like no other. The group is backed by industry experts NSM Insurance Group.

About RC Fornax

RC Fornax is a work package management solution and engineering consultancy provider primarily operating in the Defence Industry. They utilise the most talented, committed and technically capable individuals from the UK contractor market. This, combined with their in-house quality and project management capabilities enables them to deliver the Statements of Work as fully managed services.