Lovely people, the HMRC – completely above criticism in all respects, I have always thought. Just wanted to put that out there in a way obviously wholly unrelated to this week’s news that the Revenue has launched over 12,800 “probes” into misuses of Coronavirus support schemes. The majority of these relate to the CJRS furlough … Continue Reading
The Chancellor has announced that the rate of the National Living Wage will increase to £8.91, with corresponding increases to all the underlying national minimum wage rates, from April 2021. Importantly, the NLW (a higher rate than the NMW) will also now apply for those aged 23 and above (previously it was for 25 and … Continue Reading
Trying to find the most depressing part of the new House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee report on IR35 is not easy. There are so many possible candidates, for one thing, and as an insight into the legislative process it is little short of terrifying. Not even law by twitter like the Job Retention Scheme, … Continue Reading
Last month the government published both the results of its latest consultation on IR35 and the draft legislation. So with time to digest, any surprises?… Continue Reading
We have cautioned earlier in this series about allowing your PSC contractors to become integrated into your business so far as their outward projection to clients is concerned – describing them as part of “our team”, giving them business cards, company phones or invitations to the client party, and so on. Integration is something you … Continue Reading
It is only a slight over-simplification to say that one key difference between an employee and a contractor is that an employee gets paid by time and a contractor by output. There are obvious exceptions, such as piece-rate or commission-based employees on the one hand, and contractors who sell their services by volume rather than … Continue Reading
With the very kind assistance of APSCo and two members of HMRCs Employment Status and Intermediaries Policy team, we recently held two client workshops on the practical issues arising to end-users and recruiters from “new” IR35.… Continue Reading
Come April 2020, if you want to avoid having to deduct tax on invoices from J Soap & Co for the supply of Joe Soap, you will need to confident that it is in business on its own account and not just a vehicle for our Joe to minimise his income tax bill. Key to … Continue Reading
When considering whether an individual would be an end-user’s employee for IR35 purposes if you took away his personal services company, HMRC will pay particular attention to how far his role can be said to be integrated into the business of that end-user. Some peripheral involvement is absolutely fine, but the greater the degree of … Continue Reading
So you have identified your individual contractor and you want to agree terms of engagement with his personal services company which give you the best possible chance of avoiding direct liability under IR35 when it changes in 2020. Here are some preliminary tips:… Continue Reading
The proposed extension of IR35 in April 2020 will make private sector businesses liable to deduct tax on payments to individual contractors operating through personal service companies if the individual would be deemed their employee if it were not for the PSC.… Continue Reading
The ever-vexed question of whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor has once again come before the Australian courts. The recent decision of Balemian v Mobilia Manufacturing Pty Ltd & Anor provides a reminder to employers of the potential financial ramifications of getting this wrong.… Continue Reading
So there it is – to no-one’s really very great surprise, the Government consultation document on the simplification of the tax and NI treatment of termination payments turns out not to be about simplification after all, but just a naked tax grab. This was reasonably apparent from the chronically ill-considered nature of the original consultation … Continue Reading
We don’t yet know what lessons, if any, the Government took from the serial savaging by all sides of its disastrous consultation document on reforming the tax treatment of severance payments https://www.employmentlawworldview.com/uk-government-consults-on-tax-treatment-of-severance-payments-do-you-want-the-bad-news-or-the-bad-news/. It has not published any response to that feedback, but we can probably take some short-term clarity in this area from yesterday’s Budget. … Continue Reading
Back in 2014 we posted a piece on Moorthy –v- HMRC https://www.employmentlawworldview.com/taxing-times-for-uk-discrimination-claimant/, a case looking at the taxable status of payments to employees for injury to feelings caused by unlawful discrimination. Historically there had been an unspoken understanding that such compensation could be paid tax free, on top of the usual £30,000 allowance for termination … Continue Reading
I know that over the years we have said some pretty harsh things in this blog about assorted government proposals and consultation exercises, but I take it all back. There is a new kid in town, the HM Treasury/HMRC consultation document on Simplification of the Tax and National Insurance Treatment of Termination Payments https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/simplification-of-the-tax-and-national-insurance-treatment-of-termination-payments and … Continue Reading
HMRC issued a consultation document on 17 July 2015 to explore options for tightening up IR35, the intermediaries legislation that aims to tackle tax avoidance through disguised employment. IR35 requires individuals working through an intermediary (e.g. a personal service company (PSC)) to pay broadly the same tax and NICs as any other employee, where they … Continue Reading
In Poland the Tax Office operates a system whereby you can seek prior confirmation of the tax treatment which would be applied to any proposed business activity. One such application has recently hit the press, partly because of its subject matter and partly because of the sheer degree of prior consideration which had clearly gone into … Continue Reading
From 5 April 2014 HMRC intends to target contrived arrangements which create “artificial divisions between the duties of a UK employment and an employment overseas in order to obtain a tax advantage”. The new legislation is expected to bring in £245m over the next 4 years. It remains unclear why such new legislation is even … Continue Reading
Over the past 2 years HMRC has invested close to £100 million on tackling tax avoidance and evasion. It is now using various behind the scenes technology to track and analyse property purchases, tax returns, loans, bank accounts and employment data to create a risk profile database which will highlight transactions and help it identify … Continue Reading
The hotly anticipated Statutory Residence Test (SRT) was published last week, taking up a hearty 64 pages of the 615 page Finance Bill 2013 (not a good holiday read, let us say). The new rules will apply from 5 April 2013. The new test will be very important to employers of mobile employees since the … Continue Reading
