if your not vat registered just put £0.00 in the vat coloum
NO. if you are not VAT registered, you really don’t want the word VAT on an official invoice.
You would get in less grief if you just used a duplicate book and had a company stamp made and used that. My invoices are made up from a truck photo use as a ‘background’ with an altered MSword invoice blank, re-worded to suit my requirements and then saved as my invoices and i just alter the serial number each time (and print 2, one for my copy) as well as save each copy as it’s number in the invoice file.
Wheel Nut:
Another question about invoicing, well VAT really.
A UK customer with a depot in Germany ordered 540 boxes of made up kits in December. The kits were made up but the transport company did not collect them, they came for them 2 hours early and the parcels were not quite ready. New years eve, the driver left them behind.
The computer system generates an invoice using the transport reference which has not yet been issued.
The problem is the 2.5% VAT increase, so how can the invoice be raised after the holidays using the 17.5% rate.
This is a question that is worrying my mate and is worried about getting a bollocking when they realise the load is still sat on pallets in a bonded warehouse.
Work done before the change can still be raised at 17.5%. In any case its a moot point as if your friend got hold of their german VAT number then he doesn’t need to charge VAT on cross border purchases
Joe89:
hi guys,
well i got the job because my friend works there , had a word with the agency guy at the depot and he said yea ok ill give him some work.
so i came in , let the company take a picture and i had to sign something for driving there vans ( they also checked my license)
anyway the agency guy then said, right ill pay you by the day , i said what about tax and he just said , u wont have to pay it for the first couple months , by then you should be employed properly with the company if all goes well. if it doesnt then you will have to register as self employed… does that sound a little dodgy?
oh and im not an owner driver , i just turn up , and work like all the others except the agency guy pays me and i dont have a uniform , iv not actually been paid yet so i dont know how its going to work , but they owe me 3 days wages at the moment
Looks like people are so busy arguing about invoicing methods for you that they are not reading your reply mate!
Joe89:
hi guys,
well i got the job because my friend works there , had a word with the agency guy at the depot and he said yea ok ill give him some work.
so i came in , let the company take a picture and i had to sign something for driving there vans ( they also checked my license)
anyway the agency guy then said, right ill pay you by the day , i said what about tax and he just said , u wont have to pay it for the first couple months , by then you should be employed properly with the company if all goes well. if it doesnt then you will have to register as self employed… does that sound a little dodgy?
oh and im not an owner driver , i just turn up , and work like all the others except the agency guy pays me and i dont have a uniform , iv not actually been paid yet so i dont know how its going to work , but they owe me 3 days wages at the moment
Looks like people are so busy arguing about invoicing methods for you that they are not reading your reply mate!
Yes it sounds dodgy.
Much as it sticks in my craw to agree with Mick, yes it sounds very dodgy. If you get caught working for cash and not declaring your income to the taxman, your cards will be well and truly marked with HMRC and they will make your life a living hell. My sisters ex-husband was investigated by the tax people looking into his landscaping/gardening business which was often a cash job. They went over his bank accounts, they wanted to see all the receipts for everything he bought, even private personal purchases, to try and show he was spending more than he was declaring he was earning. He may well have skimmed some off the top, I don’t know, but I bet it cost him far more than whatever he fiddled just in the amount of time he had to spend defending himself. While you sit being grilled by the taxman, trying to recall every little detail they want to know about, you aren’t earning a crust. Don’t think they won’t catch you either because sooner or later someone will drop you in it, maybe the agency guy if you issued invoices to him.
Joe89:
what shall i do then? what would you guys do?
I think I’d be asking the taxman what I should do.
In my opinion, and that is all it is, you should be on PAYE as you only work there, you aren’t in business or self employed because you aren’t at risk of losing money from the work you do, you don’t have to put things right if your work is substandard, you can’t send someone else to do your work in your stead, and you don’t provide your own tools and materials to do the job. If you provided your own vehicle that would change things. I think you need to speak to your agency guy and get things straight. He may tell you to get lost but better now than later. Sorry if that wasn’t what you wanted to hear.
Well its definitely not cash in hand if a invoice is being asked for, the less paper the better with cash in hand. But this arrangement is a new one on me.
its a very big agency , loads of people coming and going each day.
ill ask him how im going to get paid and go from there, ill update it tomorrow when i know more!
It’s a difficult one Joe. I can understand the dilemma, dodgy at the moment but could lead to a cushy number in a couple of months.
My personal opinion, or what I would be tempted to do in your shoes would be this.
Ring the HMRC and inform them you are thinking about going self employed. Give them no more details than that on dates involved or what type of work you want to do as they hate S/E drivers and talk a load of ■■■■■ about you can’t be S/E unless it’s your truck blah, blah, blah, however, get them to send you all the bumph on what they would want you to do if you did go S/E.
Then carry on as you are for a few weeks (but make sure you get your cash off this agency) and see what happens about you getting a full time position (I’m assuming this full time position is with the same company as the agency guy is hiring you to).
OK, now if you get stopped and sussed in the next few weeks, you’ve made contact with the HMRC and told them your plans, vaguely but you did tell them and when the full time number comes, tell them (HMRC) how much you earned, deduct the tax and ask them where they want the cheque sending to and when.
If you don’t get stopped, don’t get the job and don’t stay, well, that’s up to you…
ok , i got sent home again today because it was “quiet” i did an hour helping some drivers load up but wont get paid .
I am keeping copys of the invoices, and he said its a cheque they will pay me once a week for every time i go out on a route (have to leave the depot on a van)
yes im hoping to get a position for the company he is hiring for (DPD)
so if those guys dont like you being classed as S/E for using some1 else’s van etc. what do they class you as?
cheers
i was not told to do any work , i just helped out because i dont like standing around waiting to see if theres a route i can do , so i cant really say pay me i guess.
but yea turned out no routes for me so that was that. he said it will be busy tomorrow thoe so come in again then.
i guess its just an easy setup for him, and i cant really not work if you know what i mean , not much out there it seems either!
Sorry to hear that, but it may be worth it in the end.
They want you on the books as employed as it makes them more money and more often as well. As S/E, you will pay tax, NI and Class 4 NI contributions as well (an extra few % for being SE) but will be able to claim your fuel, meals, maybe even for your car and lots of other little perks which all reduce the amount you will be giving them and jealousy is a wicked trait the staff of HRMC tend to have by the bucketful.
As employed they stop tax every week, your NI and the employers contribution and get it (hopefully) much more regularly.
Years ago, I did driving work for a major blue chip Co. through a guy I knew well and he never wanted anything on paper and wanted to pay everyone in cash. I never could work out how he was getting paid off them and why he wanted it all hush hush, but it carried on for years with different people. I didn’t fancy the risk and just put it down as earned income through my accounts, without naming the guy or source.The Inland Rev tried to insist I tell them who it was as if I didn’t I was evading income tax, but I just told them to take me to court then, they didn’t pursue it (I’d had two tax investigations prior to that, both caused by stupid and quite petty and obvious accountants errors and I can assure anyone, they are not nice).
What I’m trying to say is, cover your own back. When and if it all turns to ■■■■, this guy will sing like a canary and tell on everyone he was paying and leave them to sort it all out after swearing that they were supposed to be paying the tax etc. If he’s paying by cheque, log everything down and do it all above board, allow the tax, NI etc and keep yourself safe.
Joe89:
what shall i do then? what would you guys do?
I think I’d be asking the taxman what I should do.
In my opinion, and that is all it is, you should be on PAYE as you only work there, you aren’t in business or self employed because you aren’t at risk of losing money from the work you do, you don’t have to put things right if your work is substandard, you can’t send someone else to do your work in your stead, and you don’t provide your own tools and materials to do the job. If you provided your own vehicle that would change things. I think you need to speak to your agency guy and get things straight. He may tell you to get lost but better now than later. Sorry if that wasn’t what you wanted to hear.
I am self employed driving a private hire cab for a local company, and fit the description above, they provide the car (at a cost to me) I can’t send someone to do my work for me, I don’t provide my own tools and the substandard bit wouldn’t apply to the work I do.
With regard to notifying the tax man, he has 3 months from his first day of self employment before he has to notify them (penalty if late) so it would be best to wait until he knows what is happening before talking to them. as he has not been offered a full time or part time job he cannot be PAYE.
I’d photocopy the cheques before cashing them, and keep the copies with any other paperwork (timesheets, invoices etc) in a safe place
The whole setup is wriddled with holes, and only a matter of time before it bites you in the arse.
If anyone turns up on a site on the instruction of an agency at a specified start time, they are due a minimum 8 hours pay. Irrespective of whether it turns out they where booked as the “spare” man and there’s no work that day & they get sent home
am self employed driving a private hire cab for a local company, and fit the description above, they provide the car (at a cost to me)
You see the difference? Just like at a hairdressers where another clipper rents the chair, not quite the same as just driving someone else’s vehicle.
I only do it SE because I work for many different companies and to fit in with another seasonal job, plus have my own company in another line of work. I’m VAT reg but not a ltd co as it wouldn’t be beneficial and secondly, I dislike ltd companies (although the 19% tax would be a bonus but hey, can’t have everything). A couple of the companies I drive for have been given ear-ache by HMRC and told they must pay me through PAYE, both told the tax man to sod off and carried on and that was the end of it. They don’t like SE and will lie about what you can and can’t do, but as long as you pay up at the end of the year they have little they can do. It isn’t within their remit to decide whether you are SE or PAYE (even though they will insist they have that power. Ask them to show you a statute in black and white, not just some rule from their own department they have dreamt up and try to pass as law), they are just there to take the appropriate tax off you.
