IR35 has been around for twenty years. All this change does is make the employer liable if they hire a contractor and treat them like an employee.

That was the original design but it was changed by lobbying from the professions to avoid IR35 hitting them.

Ultimately it is a matter of power in negotiation. If the hirer needs the skills they’ll either alter the way the task is done or just pay the tax.

The impact will be in aggregate. Any tax reduces the overall number of transactions. That’s sort of the point of it.