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HOW HMRC ARE TARGETING CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES OVER FALSE SELF-EMPLOYMENT

£154m Record

HMRC claws in record £154m from tax status checks

Tough crackdowns by HMRC tax inspectors on construction have yielded a 17% jump in revenue coming from investigations.

New Tax Legislation

New tax legislation causes concern

New tax legislation shifts the primary PAYE liability to whoever pays the worker.

Landmark Ruling

Employment Labour agency loses £158m tax appeal

One of the UK’s largest employment agencies has lost a Court of Appeal hearing contesting up to £158m in unpaid tax.

With the ever growing success being enjoyed by HMRC's Tax collection unit, more and more Tax Inspectors are being recruited to increase its ability to pursue and prosecute more companies and increase its tax and penalty collections.

AM I AT RISK?

Without a full assessment of your business and how you work it is difficult to say, but it is essential that the workers you use are engaged correctly on a self-employed basis, a key component being that they are working under contracts that allow the subcontractor to work freely, without day to day supervision, direction or control over how they work.

We can understand many construction business owners, believing or hoping it's as simple as finding a lawyer to draft a contract of self-employment covering the relationship between the worker and the construction firm.

Unfortunately as you would guess it is not as simple as that. It is a complex issue, with many elements that need to work together to give you the protection you need and confidence to be working under safe CIS.

Aggregate Partners LLP can help and whether you engage us or not we will carry out a full risk assessment of your current arrangements and provide you with different options to consider that can ensure you are not at risk.

For further information click on the buttons below.

Have Arrangement Nothing In Place

At Risk

With the new rule changes many companies don't know they have workers at high risk of being caught under 'false self-employment'

The nature of the construction industry is that it exists in a dynamic ever challenging environment, but with fluctuating levels of work it remains a largely unpredictable industry. This has necessitated that companies and workers become flexible. In fact this need is ever more so an essential requirement that enables companies to remain competitive and profitable.

So, clearly with the need for flexibility, over the years the industry has sought the engagement of subcontract self-employed labour, the use of third party labour suppliers and other arrangements to achieve this.

But with recent rule, regulation and legal changes and the HMRC's determination to rout-out what they term 'false self-employment' construction companies find themselves at risk. A risk that many of them are not aware of, as most are unaware of the introduction of the new rules and are carrying on using and paying workers in the same old manner as they always have.

So the problem is how to retain a flexible work-force essential to compete in the construction industry, but do so without the cost, the risks and the potential liabilities that can be incurred if that same workforce is ultimately deemed by the HMRC as employed.

Solution

Safe CIS - A way to remove all your self-employed risks and worries

Aggregate Partners LLP can provide you with a solution, we offer you the flexible workforce you want and need, allowing you to use self-employed trade labour in a way which removes the administrative burdens of CIS, potential PAYE liabilities, the administration required for compliance with the Construction Industry Scheme, eliminates risk and exposure to HMRC penalties, while adding NO extra costs to your labour bills.

Aggregate Partners will:

account for CIS tax to HM Revenue & Customs on payments to self-employed workers;
deal with all paperwork associated with CIS self-employed workers;
declare to HM Revenue & Customs that the workers have been appraised as self-employed;
provision of approved legal contracts and documentation that govern the relationships of the parties;
and the provision of an NIC Losses Insurance policy covering professional expenses, NIC loses and interest claimed by the HMRC;

Aggregate Partners LLP provision of NIC Losses Insurance policy to its clients comes courtesy of Accountax Consulting an Abbey Tax and Consultancy Services Limited (ATCS) business. Accountax, ATCS product is underwritten by Markel International Insurance Company Limited. One of the world's largest insurance companies.

Insurance Just In Case