Content
Oh for a little hindsight
Can't pay, won't pay?
Shock in Essex
Car tax
You signed it
Don't be late
Age before beauty?
IHT and falling prices
More paper
Shopping around
Less paper
PAYE or not PAYE...
Flat rate scheme
A change of heart
There are limits
Do your duty
Free lunch
VAT a mess
Dissatisfaction guaranteed
Don't believe it!
Too late
Tax on tick
£100 note
Temp reminder
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...that is the question, as Shakespeare might have put it. HMRC are well-known to prefer to regard people as employees - they get their money more securely from the employer under PAYE than from all the individual workers under self-assessment, and the National Insurance Contributions for employees are much higher than for self-employed people. If a business treats people as self-employed - paying them gross - and then loses an argument with HMRC about the workers' status, it's the business that has to pay. HMRC are particularly suspicious of construction as an industry where people may not pay the right amount of tax, and they regularly argue that sub-contractors are really employees. It's important to realise that status depends on the facts, not on what the parties agree or on what the workers are called. In a recent case, HMRC decided that 321 workers were really employees, in spite of an earlier ruling - which they had mislaid - that they were self-employed. The Special Commissioner looked at all the facts and decided that 314 of them - bricklayers, scaffolders and team-leaders - were self-employed. Only a small number who operated the company's expensive plant - truck and fork-lift drivers - were employees. If you are thinking of paying someone gross, be aware of the risks. It's clear from this case that a good argument can win, but it's also possible to lose. We can help you get your workers' status right.  |