A few months ago I started working for a small firm new to my area. The work was and still is easy, the hours short and the money pretty good for the little bit of work I do.
The money’s been going in the bank every week but so far I haven’t seen a single pay slip.
A few weeks ago I was told I was self employed, yet I haven’t invoiced as self employed and not only did I not agree to being self employed, I wasn’t asked or told at the initial interview.
I’m not even sure if it would be legal if I did agree, as as far as I’m aware, it is illegal (or something) to work as a driver for a single same employer.
As far as I’m aware, it is up to the employer to stop tax and national insurance and if I quite, will the inland revenue come after me for the tax and national insurance or the employer?
what was said in the advert / at the interview? Is there any contract of employment? If you’ve not received any payslips or remittance advice, take your employer to a tribunal.
Derf:
what was said in the advert / at the interview? Is there any contract of employment? If you’ve not received any payslips or remittance advice, take your employer to a tribunal.
How long have you worked for them?
No contract, nothing said about self employed in the add or the interview four/five months ago. I only heard about it talking to one of the other drivers while standing around waiting to get loaded.
The thing is, the jobs starting to go ■■■■-up and I’m already looking for another job.
It’s a tricky one this. You are responsible for your own tax affairs, a company is supposed to tell the tax office when you start and how much you get paid allowing the tax office to take the correct amount through you tax code. If they insist you are self employed ask for an invoice confirming how much you have been paid in full. You will have to contact the tax office and they will send you self assessment forms to fill in at the appropriate time. Same for NI contributions.
Why did you wait a couple of months before asking for a pay slip though? That should set alarm bells ringing.
I was self employed for a small firm a couple near me a couple of years back and to get round the fact you were basically working for him he used to invoice you for the hire of his vehicles. We were working for the customer and he was hiring us the vans and charging us for finding the work, a right con it was, I didn’t stay long and got out as soon as I could. You need to find out soon if they’re classing you as self employed as you only have a ltd. time to register with the tax man (i.i.r.c. 3 months).Get out if you can and sort things out quickly with the tax man good luck mate
berewic:
A few months ago I started working for a small firm new to my area. The work was and still is easy, the hours short and the money pretty good for the little bit of work I do.
The money’s been going in the bank every week but so far I haven’t seen a single pay slip.
A few weeks ago I was told I was self employed, yet I haven’t invoiced as self employed and not only did I not agree to being self employed, I wasn’t asked or told at the initial interview.
I’m not even sure if it would be legal if I did agree, as as far as I’m aware, it is illegal (or something) to work as a driver for a single same employer.
As far as I’m aware, it is up to the employer to stop tax and national insurance and if I quite, will the inland revenue come after me for the tax and national insurance or the employer?
I would think they will certainly come after you for any unpaid tax regardless of whether you’re self employed or not, as far as I know it’s the employers responsibility to stop the tax out of your wages, it’s not their responsibility to pay it for you
Why didn’t you query why they were not stopping any tax or national insurance out of your wages?
Even without a payslip surely you must have noticed that there were no stoppages
Now even I know that every employer in the UK must provide a contract of employment within a week of starting, you can take them to court and they could face a hefty fine.
If you are ‘Self employed’ you need to do something about your NI contributions as you are only allowed so many weeks without contributing before all your benefits are cancelled. They still have to provide you with documents to show what you have recieved for tax reasons.
The company sounds dodgy to me.
Pat Hasler:
Now even I know that every employer in the UK must provide a contract of employment within a week of starting, you can take them to court and they could face a hefty fine.
If you are ‘Self employed’ you need to do something about your NI contributions as you are only allowed so many weeks without contributing before all your benefits are cancelled. They still have to provide you with documents to show what you have recieved for tax reasons.
The company sounds dodgy to me.
If the boss is suddenly saying you’re self employed, stick him some invoices for the periods you’ve worked for him for £1,000 per week, if he challenges it simply point out that was the arrangement when we discussed it remember…
There is some clause that small companies can pay up to a certain amount (not very big, couple of £k iirc) and just pay gross not through PAYE and down to employee to sort their tax.
mac12:
You should be ok,the inland revenue should go to your employer thats why if you are self employed with an agency you have to be a ltd company
Not quite, you can also be on agency as a sole trader, but either way you have to have some sort of invoicing system so you know what the ‘agency’ should be paying you and so that you can match it up to what you receive.
My son did a bit of work for an ‘agency’ on a similar basis - all verbal and the money just appeared in his bank account. Luckily we’re only talking a handful of shifts totalling about £500 and he’s been sensible enough to put a percentage of earnings aside for tax etc. so I’ve told him to just produce an invoice for each shift he did and file it away should HMRC ever want to check it out.
If you where self employed, you would provide an invoice for work done. This invoice then removes the blame of potential tax evasion/avoidance from the company. Hence the tax office would pursue you for tax owed.
As you have not been issuing invoices, but have been filling in time sheets blah blah blah. The tax office will back you to the hilt and persue the company for tax.
This will be quite expensive for them, as they will take your pay as take home and tax the company on top of that.
I’m self employed, and look into every fiddle…sorry I mean loop hole in the book. When it comes to legally avoiding tax, my accountant makes Jimmy Carr look like a upstanding pillar of society.
But my customers are my bread and butter, so what ever I do, everything defends them.
Incidently, £43,000 invoiced last year. £562 tax bill.
Just wish I could get my capital gains tax bill that low.
you have nothing to worry about.
they might say you’re self employed, but you’re not. and you’re not responsible for your tax and ni, they are.
but for the time being say nothing.
in the future when you move on, hmrc will ask about a gap in your employment history. just tell them that you worked for xxxltd, and put the ball in their court.
an uneducated upstart at hmrc might ask you to pay, but they can only ask. it is up to them to collect from your employer.
not your problem. chill out and take the money.
berewic:
As far as I’m aware, it is up to the employer to stop tax and national insurance and if I quite, will the inland revenue come after me for the tax and national insurance or the employer?
You are incorrect. It is up to you to ensure the correct amount of tax and NI is paid. They WILL come after you if they find out about it and go for the employer for employers NI.
Your job does not qualify for being self employed.
limeyphil:
you have nothing to worry about.
they might say you’re self employed, but you’re not. and you’re not responsible for your tax and ni, they are.
Wrong. It is up to the individual to ensure tax is paid. The only defence to assuming it is is payslips and a P60 showing deductions but even then, that only gets you off tax evasion and you’ll still have to pay a bill.
As you have not been issuing invoices, but have been filling in time sheets blah blah blah. The tax office will back you to the hilt and pursue the company for tax.
I’ve not even been filling in time sheets. I get a weekly work sheet e-mailed to me with the details of the weeks duties, I get phone calls if there are any changes and that’s about it.
Once on month I get another e-mail telling me what I did on whatever day and how much I got paid for it.
I check it against the weekly work sheets to check if anythings missing or any changes to the original worksheet have been included.
I’m not against the idea of being self employed and realise taxes have to be paid.
The thing is I don’t want to get stuck with a bleeding great bill at the end of it.
If you know of a good accountant ironstripper, I’d much appreciate a PM thanks.
One of the guys that’s worked for the firm a few years said his accountant claimed for just about everything under the Sun ending with him paying next to nothing for the entire year.
limeyphil:
you have nothing to worry about.
they might say you’re self employed, but you’re not. and you’re not responsible for your tax and ni, they are.
Wrong. It is up to the individual to ensure tax is paid. The only defence to assuming it is is payslips and a P60 showing deductions but even then, that only gets you off tax evasion and you’ll still have to pay a bill.
sorry conor,
you are completely wrong on this, i’ve owned and run several companies. i know what i’m on about.
but don’t be fooled by hmrc, they will always ask the employee to stump up for shortfalls in income tax, and NI “the easy option”. and all you say is chase the employer not me. they can’t touch you for it.
