HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has produced a series of new factsheets to help IT contractors familiarise themselves with new regulations.

The tax office has released a new framework for its compliance checks, so IT contractors are urged to make themselves aware of the changes.

These factsheets, which are available from the HMRC website, illustrate exactly how HMRC goes about requesting information, as well as how it arranges visits and deals with errors.

Also covered is the procedure for imposing penalties, for carelessness, wrongdoing or deliberate defaulting.

"The new compliance checks legislation is one of the first pieces of cross cutting legislation designed to make the tax system simpler and more consistent," HMRC states.

Contractor Calculator recommends that anyone receiving notification of investigation from HMRC speaks to an accountant immediately.

Meanwhile, speculation continues over the future of IR35 tax legislation, which the Office for Tax Simplification has vowed to replace with something more transparent.