burnie1:
brados:
burnie1:
I would say that a truck driver that does not own the truck they are driving would find it very difficult to prove to the hmrc that they are self employed and not employed. Hmrc do check on these things just ask the guys at Rangers FC!Not necessarily, all you have to do is to be available to work for any company you want, the fact that the company you are with does not want you to is neither here or there, if you are free to work for whom you want then you truly are self employed.
There is more involved than that. They look at substitution which is what you are saying but they also look at financial risk and control over the worker
Financial risk is hard to prove if you are not supplying vehicles, fuel, insurance, repairs etc
The employer can tell the driver where to go and when to do the job so there is plenty of control
Substitution I cannot see many employers being happy if another driver turns up to do your shift while you go off and do another job.
With the government trying to collect as much money as they can the hmrc are working very hard to collect as much as they can.
If they did not do this then we would be in the same boat as Greece
Bernie1.
You are right in what you say about the HMRC, they do look at substitution, risk etc. The problem is that you are confusing ‘their guidelines’ with any actual laws that exist. Their guidelines carry no more weight in law that if I was to write a set myself which states to be SE you must be 5ft 2in and own a red transit. The HMRC has a very simple task, collect tax at a rate that is set by the elected MP’s, it does not have authority to determine work status for individuals.
I was being hounded by them in the early nineties about this.I had my own business (a garage doing repairs, ins work etc) but as Maggie had shut down all the pits which were the biggest employers round here, trade was dire and I had gone from 4 full time employees to me on my own and still had time to do driving for several firms. Mr tax man said I couldn’t drive SE. I could mechanic for them, even at their premises (which I had done for years anyway), I could paint the fence SE. but not drive the truck. They spouted about Hourly pay not allowed if your SE, but I was hourly paid spannering which was fine. They tried the ‘substitution’ bit as well which is complete and utter bollox.If you commissioned an artist to paint a portrait could he give the job the Rolf Harris instead? Likewise you ask Status Quo to do a gig for you and ST Winifred’s school choir turn up, so to control that you have to employ Quo do you?
I would have been employed by about 10 different hauliers and I wasn’t prepared to do it. I stood my ground then and told them to take me to court (and have done three times since) and I mean a real court, not the HMRC judge and jury and they have never taken it any further. I have had a tax investigation though, which proved that accountants and tax inspectors are both incredibly stupid and can’t see a blatantly obvious mistake (of theirs!) that a kid would have.
All this was going on while the new Director General of the BBC was announced to be Self Employed and that was fine with the tax man…
ps. Nice find Starfighter
DoYouMeanMe?:
All this was going on while the new Director General of the BBC was announced to be Self Employed and that was fine with the tax man…ps. Nice find Starfighter
Although Bernie1 is right in saying that they want to maximise revenue, it’s just that they only want to slap the little guys whilst letting the corporations off
many thanks for all the advice, money went in today , ( 3 days) thanks again 
Starfighter.
The daft bit about it is, they would get more revinue off me as SE than PAYE. Don’t forget the class 4 NIC adds a few more % then the VAT.