Independent contractor agreement template
The risk in a contractor arrangement is that it quietly looks like employment. If the contractor works fixed hours, uses your equipment and takes day-to-day direction, a tribunal may treat them as an employee regardless of what the paperwork says.
This agreement sets out the commercial terms and states the relationship plainly, so the arrangement is what both parties intend it to be.
Free to start · No card required · The other party doesn't need an account
What this agreement covers
- Services and autonomy
- What the contractor will do, and their freedom to decide how and when they do it.
- Rate and invoicing
- Hourly, daily or fixed rate, invoicing cadence, and payment terms.
- Status
- An explicit statement that this is not employment, and that the contractor handles their own tax and statutory contributions.
- Equipment and expenses
- Who supplies tools and software, and which expenses are reimbursable.
- Substitution
- Whether the contractor may send a qualified substitute — a strong indicator of genuine contractor status.
- IP and confidentiality
- Ownership of deliverables and protection of anything sensitive they see.
When you need one
- Engaging a specialist for a defined piece of work
- Part-time technical or creative support without a headcount
- Overflow capacity during a busy period
- Trialling someone before offering a permanent role
From description to signed, in one sitting
- 1
Describe it
Tell Adehun what you're agreeing to, in plain language.
- 2
Refine it
Edit any clause, or ask the AI to redraft just that one.
- 3
Sign and send
Sign it yourself, then email the other party a private link.
- 4
They sign
Or they propose changes. Both signatures done, everyone gets the PDF.
Independent contractor agreement questions
Control, integration and mutuality of obligation. An employee is told how and when to work, is embedded in the organisation, and both sides expect ongoing work. A contractor decides their own method, serves multiple clients, bears their own commercial risk, and is engaged for defined work.
The contractor accounts for their own income tax and any statutory contributions, and the agreement should say so. Depending on the engagement, withholding tax may apply to the payments — worth confirming with an accountant for your situation.
By default they often do, which surprises many clients. If you need to own the deliverables, the agreement must assign IP explicitly — this one does.
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Draft your independent contractor agreement now
Describe it in a sentence or two. You'll have a full draft in about a minute, and you can change every word of it.
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