Technically I’m not working for him full time. Im doing the odd day with another company, so invoicing more than one company.
Trucker-Millward:
Technically I’m not working for him full time. Im doing the odd day with another company, so invoicing more than one company.
A little sweetheart arrangement… 
albion:
Employment status: Self-employed and contractor - GOV.UKChecking if they’re exempt from PAYE
Someone is probably self-employed and shouldn’t be paid through PAYE if most of the following are true:
they’re in business for themselves, are responsible for the success or failure of their business and can make a loss or a profit
they can decide what work they do and when, where or how to do it
they can hire someone else to do the work
they’re responsible for fixing any unsatisfactory work in their own time
their employer agrees a fixed price for their work - it doesn’t depend on how long the job takes to finish
they use their own money to buy business assets, cover running costs, and provide tools and equipment for their work
they can work for more than one clientRegarding the OP, he seems to fail on a number of those criteria.
commercialfleet.org/news/tru … ed-legally
Last year, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) advised the Road Haulage Association (RHA) that it is rare in road haulage for someone to be genuinely self-employed, unless they are an owner-driver.
truckanddriver.co.uk/big-lorry-b … ink-again/
Various ploys are being used by which lorry drivers are said to be “self-employed”. That is fine for genuine owner-drivers, who have their own operating licence and haulage business – but anyone driving a lorry for another company cannot be self-employed.
taxation.co.uk/Articles/201 … heavy-load
Self-employed workers
There is widespread misunderstanding across the industry that it is acceptable to engage a driver on a self-employed basis. This may be short term cover to fill a staff shortage or on a long term basis. Sadly, unless the driver holds an operating licence and is carrying on their own haulage business they cannot be considered self-employed. I would emphasise that this is not a recent change in HMRC’s approach; it is the department’s longstanding view.
Historically, drivers have been provided by agencies and supplied to the haulage business on a temporary basis and it was not uncommon for the agencies to engage those drivers on a self-employed basis. Since the introduction of the intermediary tax rules in April 2014 (ITEPA 2003, s 44), these workers have fallen within the PAYE and National Insurance net if they are working under ‘supervision, direction or control’. The supervision, direction or control may be exercised by the agency, the end client or, indeed, anyone within the relationship. In reality, given the nature of the work undertaken by a driver, it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to win any argument with HMRC that they are not under direction, supervision or control. This is because the operator engaging the worker is likely to be telling them when they are needed to work and the duties they are required to perform. The intermediary rules require the agency to operate PAYE and National Insurance on the payments they make to the worker. This is the case unless the agency is situated outside the UK when responsibility sits with the end client (the haulage company) which should be operating PAYE and National Insurance on the payments it makes to the agency.
It all seems pretty clear to me.
Boom! Nice post albion.
I fell foul of the old self employed truck driver thing. I had my head turned with a minimum hourly rate of £15, thought I was on a good thing (60 hours x £15 - you do the sums) and jumped in without carrying out due diligence.
Upshot of that is, I’ve spent the last 12 months with an attachment of earnings on my wages from HMRC, which equates to £45 a week ON TOP of my regular contributions. Its a killer and I only have myself to blame.
In albion’s post in the quote above there are some published articles, the one I’ve read is from Truck & Driver magazine and that spells things out clearly. truckanddriver.co.uk/big-lorry- … ink-again/
Operators will tell you all sorts of things why what they’re offering is different. Why what they’re offering is perfectly legal.
Its all a load of tosh designed to save them money and responsibility to you, the employee. The fact is you can’t be a self employed truck driver unless you have an operators licence and your own truck(s). Period.
Its what the Road Haulage Association says. Its what HMRC says. And I believe them over some shyster truck operator trying to pinch pennies.
Chances are you might get away with it for a period of time. Chances are however like me, you get caught and end up with a backtax bill there’s no way of avoiding.
The discussion everyone should really be having IMHO is how are companies/agencies still allowed to advertise a scheme which is clearly unlawful? Fire up indeed.com and its full of this self employed manure.
Me? I had pound signs before my eyes and got burnt as a result. But there will be young drivers who know no better, getting caught up in this and left paying backtax years after the lucrative job they accepted has gone by the by. That doesn’t seem right to me in the cold light of day.
If you insist on disregarding some very sound advice in this thread, and jumping into one of these self employed jobs, caveat emptor.
Scribe:
Boom! Nice post albion.I fell foul of the old self employed truck driver thing. I had my head turned with a minimum hourly rate of £15, thought I was on a good thing (60 hours x £15 - you do the sums) and jumped in without carrying out due diligence.
Upshot of that is, I’ve spent the last 12 months with an attachment of earnings on my wages from HMRC, which equates to £45 a week ON TOP of my regular contributions. Its a killer and I only have myself to blame.
In albion’s post in the quote above there are some published articles, the one I’ve read is from Truck & Driver magazine and that spells things out clearly. truckanddriver.co.uk/big-lorry- … ink-again/
Operators will tell you all sorts of things why what they’re offering is different. Why what they’re offering is perfectly legal.
Its all a load of tosh designed to save them money and responsibility to you, the employee. The fact is you can’t be a self employed truck driver unless you have an operators licence and your own truck(s). Period.
Its what the Road Haulage Association says. Its what HMRC says. And I believe them over some shyster truck operator trying to pinch pennies.
Chances are you might get away with it for a period of time. Chances are however like me, you get caught and end up with a backtax bill there’s no way of avoiding.
The discussion everyone should really be having IMHO is how are companies/agencies still allowed to advertise a scheme which is clearly unlawful? Fire up indeed.com and its full of this self employed manure.
Me? I had pound signs before my eyes and got burnt as a result. But there will be young drivers who know no better, getting caught up in this and left paying backtax years after the lucrative job they accepted has gone by the by. That doesn’t seem right to me in the cold light of day.
If you insist on disregarding some very sound advice in this thread, and jumping into one of these self employed jobs, caveat emptor.
To be fair though, what many (most?) agencies offer is not “Self Employment” but “Limited Company” status (typically through some sort of umbrella scheme) where the idea is to channel the money through the “Company”, thus avoiding NI and regular Income Tax on (most of) the cash. As far as I am aware, none of the tests mentioned earlier apply to these arrangements.
Roymondo:
[
To be fair though, what many (most?) agencies offer is not “Self Employment” but “Limited Company” status (typically through some sort of umbrella scheme) where the idea is to channel the money through the “Company”, thus avoiding NI and regular Income Tax on (most of) the cash. As far as I am aware, none of the tests mentioned earlier apply to these arrangements.
Yep that’s a fair comment Roy. As I understand it an umbrella company pays the contributions on your behalf, essentially employing you themselves. For a slice of the pie of course. But even that comes with its own issues as companies have been known to mysteriously vanish without paying what’s due. Ultimately its the drivers tax liability and that’s who HMRC will come after if payments don’t get made.
Its a minefield.