For inside IR35 contractors, the lender market divides on one question with a £200,000 answer: does the lender assess on the gross contract value, or on the net PAYE take-home the deductions leave behind? The gross-value pool — established but shorter than contractors assume — is the inside IR35 market that matters, and this guide maps it.
The map comes with its methodology fine print (the employer’s NI question that moves assessments by 13.8%), the documentation discipline that determines which figure your file actually assesses on, and the standing caveat of every lender guide on this site: criteria move continually, the logic here endures, and the live positions are confirmed case by case.
An inside IR35 contractor on £550 per day: gross-value assessment reads £126,500 annualised, supporting £569,250 at 4.5 times. Net-assessment reads take-home of perhaps £80,000, supporting £360,000.
Same contractor, same contract, £209,250 of borrowing capacity decided purely by the lender’s methodology — which is why the gross-value pool is the entire practical shortlist.
The gross-value pool's live membership is confirmed before anything else.
Each candidate's employer's-NI treatment is identified, before or after funding.
Standard gates on history, structure, credit and LTV are laid over the pool.
The gross rate is evidenced independently and packaged for the winner.
The pool spans the contractor-friendly tiers: high street names, larger mutuals applying structure-breadth logic, and specialists whose income principles read the gross by design.
The pool's membership shifts with criteria revisions, which is exactly why case-by-case confirmation is the working substance rather than a disclaimer.
Mainstream names extending gross treatment to inside IR35 engagements.
Larger mutuals applying sector-blind or any-structure appetite to the gross figure.
Lenders whose income principles read the gross rate by design, not exception.
Within the gross-value pool, methodology splits again: some lenders assess the contract rate before employer’s National Insurance is funded from it; others use the rate after. The difference is roughly 13.8% of assessable income — on a £550 rate, around £15,000 of annual income and £67,000 of capacity at standard multiples.
Two lenders both honestly described as ‘gross-value’ can therefore produce materially different figures, and identifying each one’s live treatment is part of every inside IR35 comparison we run
The file determines the assessment as much as the lender: payslips alone show only the post-deduction cascade and invite the net reading even at gross-capable lenders. The gross rate must be evidenced independently — the contract, an agency rate confirmation, or (for umbrella delivery) the assignment schedule or Key Information Document itemising rate and deductions.
Packaging the gross evidence from the outset is the controllable half of the £200,000 question — and the first correction we make on inside IR35 files arriving from elsewhere.