David Migdal

Why many medium and large consultancies have an IR35 advantage. If your consultancy delivers a fully outsourced service, the IR35 “client” is often your consultancy rather than the end client. That can create a commercial advantage. Your client does not need to carry out IR35 determinations on the individuals delivering the work, and you remain in control of how your delivery teams are structured. For consultancies building flexible delivery teams using contractors, this can support a lean and scalable operating model. However, this advantage only holds if the model stands up to scrutiny. Contracts, working practices and status assessments all need to align. This becomes particularly important if your consultancy is planning to grow, attract investment or prepare for a future sale, as IR35 risk is often examined during due diligence. A consultancy built on a robust IR35 model is easier for clients to engage and more attractive to investors. If you would like to sense-check whether your consultancy is structured correctly, feel free to book a quick chat. #IR35 #OffPayroll #ConsultancyGrowth #UKBusiness #MergersAndAcquisitions #Contractors #IR35Shield

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UK-based hospitality tech company Inntelo AI has raised more than £500,000 in a Pre-Seed funding round to fuel its commercial growth. Inntelo AI has developed a platform for hotels that seamlessly combines guest and team communication. Its AI Concierge automates guest inquiries via WhatsApp or phone and converts them into coordinated tasks across all hotel departments, improving team responsiveness, delivering operational efficiencies, and enhancing the overall guest experience. The round was led by Haatch and its partner, British Business Bank, with participation from Look AI Ventures and several angel investors. The funding will help accelerate the company's commercial growth, expand its sales and marketing efforts, and support ongoing customer deployments and integrations with property management systems. Congratulations to CEO and co-founder Asif Alidina and the Inntelo AI team. Tech.eu: https://lnkd.in/dx2rUW98 #HospitalityTech #AI #SaaS #GuestExperience #Automation #PreSeed #Funding #UKTech

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IR35/OPW: Consultancies and the Director issue - a tip On my IR35/OPW consulting travels I often engage with firms that are consultancies providing fully-contracted out services, where the director of the company is also involved in delivering the service. For consultancies providing services to the public sector, you may have come across some of the misplaced paranoia where the PSB does not want the director to be part of delivery, because that brings into scope Chapter 10 ITEPA 2003 - off-payroll working (IR35 Reforms). The thinking is that the director owns shares in the consultancy, thereby making the consultancy an intermediary, and for that part of the engagement, the PSB is "the client" for OPW purposes. So, a couple of things: 1) If the direct does assist with delivery, but does not put a line item on the montly timesheet for their time, but instead uses people with "blended rates" that effectively increases the rates of the others, to cater for the governance and oversight by the boss, then there is no identifable "chain payment", and so the problem goes away. The same can be achieved with a fixed price for the whole job, where multiple people are delivering the outcome. 2) If the director engagement is assessed, because the director is able to engage and hire others, it's not employment, because personal service does not apply. It's that simple - the easiest assessment ever. Just make sure the contract backs things up. I really enjoy working with consultancies, helping them to overcome some of the false hurdles put up by clients who don't quite understand the IR35 rules. If you are one of those, and need help with bids, procurement, or convincing your customers that you are "the client", by all means get in touch - most of the time these things are easily resolved. And from April 2026, there is a very compelling argument why your customers definitely do not want to be "the client". I can help you with that too. Consultancies have a wave coming their way, as the contingent workforce map changes. Don't miss out on the chances to win deals because of IR35 mistakes. Pop a note here, we can have a chat, and then see if we can help you win that next big one. https://lnkd.in/dy4s98G4 #ir35 #offpayroll #ir35shield

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Government funding can cover up to 50% of your AI transformation costs. Yet most UK businesses don't know these schemes exist. We've just published a comprehensive guide to funding available for AI and automation projects across the UK: ✓ HMRC R&D Tax Relief (UK-wide) - 20% credit on qualifying expenditure ✓ Scottish AI Adoption Programme ✓ Available UK funds ✓ Critical deadlines you need to know Whether you're implementing workflow automation, building custom AI systems, or developing intelligent applications, these schemes can substantially reduce your project costs. The guide includes examples from property management, healthcare, professional services, and more. Read the full guide: https://lnkd.in/eETCeqxD

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🚀 New Blog: IR35 and the Tech Sector 💻 The UK’s tech industry thrives on specialist contractors – but since the IR35 reforms, many IT professionals have had to rethink how they work. With stricter tax rules, compliance pressure, and reduced take-home pay, more contractors are turning to umbrella companies as a safer, simpler way to contract. From inside vs. outside IR35 rules, to the impact on high-demand IT roles, our blog explores why umbrella solutions like Danbro Umbrella are becoming the go-to choice for contractors. 👉 Read the full blog to discover how umbrella contracting could help you stay compliant, flexible, and secure: https://bit.ly/4nDLiNw #IR35 #TechSector #Trusted #Compliant #ITContractors #DanbroUmbrella #NewBlog

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Barclays is actively exploring a blockchain platform for payments and deposits, aiming to partner with technology providers by April, and has invested in Ubyx to enhance digital money connectivity.

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Interesting read as to how the Bank of England’s cloud migration grew significantly more expensive as its scope and delivery approach evolved over time. Originally planned as a contained move of back-office systems, the project expanded into a phased, cautious rollout that uncovered legacy dependencies, integration challenges, and skills gaps. The piece highlights a broader lesson for large organisations: cloud migrations of core systems are complex, long-term efforts where costs often rise due to organisational change and risk management, not just the technology itself. #AWS #Cloud #CloudEngineerAcademy https://lnkd.in/eF7SKbEp

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AI rules are changing—are you prepared? UK businesses face a fast-evolving landscape of AI regulation and compliance. From the ICO’s updated accountability framework to new data laws, the stakes for SMEs and mid-market firms have never been higher. Confused about what’s required, or what’s coming next? You’re not alone. Staying compliant isn’t just a legal necessity—it’s your competitive edge. Let’s talk about how your business can adapt confidently and ethically. Connect with me for the latest updates and practical guidance tailored to your sector.

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Grateful to the team at Innovation Centre, Knowledge Gateway for this feature. When I started BizBooster, the idea was simple: take everything I learned in nearly 6 years inside a UK accounting practice and build AI tools that solve the problems I saw every day. The biggest one? Bank statement processing. Qualified accountants spending hours typing transactions from PDFs into spreadsheets. With MTD going live on 6 April, that workload is about to multiply by 4x. The AI extractor handles any bank statement — PDF, scan, phone photo — and delivers clean, structured data in about 10 seconds per page. Already deployed at a UK practice. Saving 400+ hours a year. If your practice is preparing for MTD and the bank statement side is the bit keeping you up at night — DM me. I'll show you how it works in 15 minutes.

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I joined the Jem AI session where Simon Ellis was exploring how they are integrating AI into their platforms, it was refreshing to see. He explored some incredible tools, some of them are Relay.app for automation, Magic Patterns for design, the focus was clear simplify, automate and empower 💪. My biggest takeaway : The future of work isn't just about using AI, it's about putting together the right specialised tools to solve specific problems and save time. Thanks for the insights, Simon and Jem team! #AI #Fintech #TechStack #Efficiency #Jem #SAIBusiness #HR

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Pleased to share the write-up, and survey data, from our B2B Software roundtable in April - covering three key themes - performance, dealmaking and AI. #B2BSoftware #PrivateEquity #Leadership #AI #MergersAndAcquisitions #SaaS #TechLeadership #OdgersInterim

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Dropped in to the central London offices of Positive Internet to discuss hosting technology – and specifically Magento hosting technology. It was so refreshing (apart from the miserable London rain) to find these guys really know their stuff regarding Magento development requirements. As well as offices in London, Positive Internet own and operate Positive Park – a PCI-DSS compliant data centre in Cambridgeshire, where they can offer round the clock support. Magento is notoriously - or reassuringly - resource-hungry but with Positive’s data centre operation we were able to talk massive ram, terrabytes of storage, optimised Varnish configurations, database back up, firewalls, proxies and a load of other Magento-specific stuff. Up to now as a Magento development agency we’ve generally been switching Magento clients to the Amazon AWS ecosystem. But after spending time with the Positive Internet team in London and learning about their techncal expertise and Cambridge data centre facilities we may need to rethink our future Magento development hosting plans.

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I believe only 3% of all UK companies are cyber essentials certified. However large companies, fair a little better with 21% certification. Clearly more has to be done across all sectors.

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Manual. Time-consuming. Risky. ❌ That’s how Tony from Adverse Online described his old process, manually reviewing every single mortgage enquiry and matching clients to lenders by hand. 📌So we built him a system that does it all for him. Clients now complete one form. Behind the scenes, the system checks their details against lender rules and returns a list of viable options, automatically.✅ And it doesn’t stop there. The system collects their contact info, lets them save progress, and walks them through the rest of the mortgage application in one place. What used to take 4 hours per enquiry? Now done in minutes. More qualified leads. Less wasted time. No more working for free. If your systems are slowing you down, let’s build one that speeds you up. #E2EStudios #CustomAutomation #SmartSystems #MortgageTech #WorkSmarter #SMEGrowth #LaravelExperts

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