Tag Archives: IR35

What are the implications of being a Service Company? Q1 Page TR4 SA100 Reply

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , ,

 

Tax Money

Here is the question:

If you provided your services through a service company (a company which provides your personal services to third
parties), enter the total of the dividends (including the tax credit) and salary (before tax was taken off) you withdrew
from the company in the tax year – read page TRG 21 of the guide
£ • 0 0

This is what the guide says:

Service companies
Box 1 If you provided your services through a service company

Complete this box if you provided your services through a service company.

You provided your services through a service company if:

• you performed services (intellectual, manual or a mixture of both) for a client (or clients), and
• the services were provided under a contract between the client(s) and a company of which you were, at any time during the tax year, a shareholder, and
• the company’s income was, at any time during the tax year, derived wholly or mainly (that is, more than half of it) from services performed by the shareholders personally.
Do not complete this box if all the income you derived from the company
was employment income.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/worksheets/sa150.pdf

The majority of limited company contractors are, by definition, ‘personal service companies’ and therefore this box is of relevance.

The question however has no statutory backing and you cannot be penalised for failing or refusing to answer it but if contractors ignore the question when HMRC know full well that their company is a ‘service company’ then they may be drawing unnecessary attention to themselves.

The information to be entered is the total of the gross salary and dividends taken from the contractor’s company in the year ended 5th April 2012.

http://shop.qdosconsulting.com/freelancer/news/2013/01/18/psc-question-on-sa-return

The point is not the whether you answer the question or not, its whether your company falls under IR35 that matters most.

IR35 came into existance in 1999,  it was created to prevent workers previously employed from creating a limited company and then benefiting from lower taxes and national insurance through the use of dividends and expenses.

So you think you are self employed, does HMRC agree?

http://stevejbicknell.com/2012/01/28/so-you-think-you-are-self-employed-does-hmrc-agree/

Can your business pass the HMRC IR35 Business Entity Tests

http://stevejbicknell.com/2012/05/14/can-your-business-pass-the-hmrc-ir35-business-entity-tests/

Consultants beware of IR35

http://stevejbicknell.com/2011/09/10/consultants-beware-of-ir35-use-the-qdos-model-contract-free/

steve@bicknells.net

BBC questioned about the employment status of celebrities 5

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , , , ,

This Monday (18th July), the BBC’s CFO, Zarin Patel and its head of employment tax, David Smith, were quizzed about the use of personal service companies (PSC’s) within the corporation by the Commons Public Accounts Committee. It emerged that out of the Beeb’s 467 presenters, 148 broadcasters, i.e. nearly a third, were being paid via PSC’s. These 148 are not unique, however, as the BBC engages 25,000 freelancers.

http://www.contractorweekly.com/contractor-news/tax-a-ir35-news/512-bbc-ir35-witch-hunt

This has been under discussion for a while and back in 2010 Accountingweb reported

Amongst those appearing as freelancers are: Jeremy Paxman (earning about £1m a year); Fiona Bruce (with annual earnings of around £500,000); and Fearne Cotton (who rakes in around £200,000 per annum)*.

However, not all presenters have fled the broadcaster’s payroll, with the likes of Huw Edwards (Ten O’Clock News presenter); Nick Robinson (political editor) and Evan Davis (presenter of the Today programme) still prepared to suffer good old fashioned PAYE.

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/topic/tax/ir35-and-celebrities-big-bucks-contracting/428140

It is hard to see on the face of it why a TV presenter would not be an employee based on:

  • Control
  • Personal Service/Subsititution
  • Mutuality of Obligation
  • Financial Risk

A BBC spokesman stated that the corporation provides HMRC with a detailed annual report of all payments made to PSC’s.

In response HMRC has now announced that it will increase its investigations into PSC’s. After admitting that HMRC had only enquired into 23 PSC’s, the department’s chief, Lin Homer, vowed to increase such investigations ‘ten-fold’ over the next year.

steve@bicknells.net

HMRC – The odd case of Coffey Builders – Employment Status Reply

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , , ,

I was reading Tips & Advice Tax – Issue 17 and they highlight an unusual piece of new case law T Coffey/Dr Selvarajan and HMRC.

TC was a retired builder who was asked by S to manage and supervise the refurbishment of his medical clinic, the project lasted over 2 years. No substitutes were allowed, S guaranteed payment, there was no contract, TC worked regular hours and he was paid a rate of £500 per week. Sounds a lot like employment doesn’t it?

But HMRC decided to argue that he was self employed and undermined the importance of the factors that would make him employed.

Very interesting.

Steve@bicknells.net

 

 

Controlling Persons more IR35 rules planned for 2013 Reply

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , , ,

HMRC has issued a consultation paper setting out proposals to tighten IR35 compliance by requiring organisations engaging “controlling persons” through personal services companies to deduct income tax and national insurance from fees paid to their companies.

A controlling person will be defined as someone from the contracting organisation who is able to shape the direction of the engaging organisation during the year. “This would be someone who has managerial control over a significant proportion of the organisation’s employees and/or control over a significant proportion of the budget of the organisation,”

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/deductions-source-planned-controlling-persons/527907

This is a response to the 2000 senior civil servants employed through Personal Services Companies and the consultation period ends on 16th August.

It will interesting to see what tests will be applied and whether all income must be paid in this way or if it only applies to part of the income of the consultant? as its planned for 2013 the government may even change their mind as they did with Pastie Tax and Mobile Homes.

steve@bicknells.net

Can your business pass the HMRC IR35 Business Entity Tests 2

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , ,

The Term “IR35” became established following a Budget press release issued by the Inland Revenue on 23rd September 1999. That press release was called “IR35”. At its simplest, IR35 is the way in which the taxman closed a loophole that was allowing many contractors and freelance professionals to avoid paying large amounts of Tax and National Insurance.

All Freelancers, Consultants and Consultancy Companies need to carefully consider the new HMRC tests released on the 9th May 2012.

Here are the 12 tests, scores shown in()

  1. Business premises (10)
  2. PII (2)
  3. Efficiency (10)
  4. Assistance (35)
  5. Advertising (2)
  6. Previous PAYE (minus 15)
  7. Business plan (1)
  8. Repair at own expense (4)
  9. Client risk (10)
  10. Billing (2)
  11. Right of substitution (2)
  12. Actual substitution (20)

A score less than 10 is high risk and a score more than 20 is low risk. Fail the test and it could cost you a great deal in tax.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ir35/guidance.pdf

steve@bicknells.net

 

HMRC IR35 Business Test expected to go live in April 2012 7

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , , , ,

The Employment Status Test has been around for a few years now, see my recent Blog http://stevejbicknell.com/2012/01/28/so-you-think-you-are-self-employed-does-hmrc-agree/ but now IR35 is going to get special attention from HMRC.

What is IR35?
The Term “IR35” became established following a Budget press release issued by the Inland Revenue on 23rd September 1999. That press release was called “IR35”. At its simplest, IR35 is the way in which the taxman closed a loophole that was allowing many contractors and freelance professionals to avoid paying large amounts of Tax and National Insurance.

IR35 Forum

The latest IR35 Forum minutes show that a new trial IR35 business test will be made live on the HMRC website in April, together with a set of typical scenarios to help establish how likely a business is to be caught by IR35.

The minutes for the last two IR35 Forum meetings (21st February and 8th March) have been published on the HMRC site.

Out of an initial set of 17 IR35 scenarios examined by the Forum, the external members and HMRC agreed on 14 of them.

It was agreed that in order to avoid confusion, just 6 scenarios would be published online. Of these, two were ‘IR35 caught’ contracts, two were outside of IR35, one is a ‘grey’ case, and the final case begins outside IR35, but moves within the scope of the rules due to changes in the company’s practices.

http://www.contracteye.co.uk/hmrc-ir35-test-april-2012.shtml

http://www.contractorweekly.com/contractor-news/tax-a-ir35-news/390-ir35-business-test-imminent

Clarity on tax rules is always a good thing, but it will be interesting to see where the lines have been drawn.

Steve@bicknells.net

So you think you are self employed, does HMRC agree? 6

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

As everyone probably already knows there are tax and national insurance advantages to being self employed and to employing casual workers on a self employed basis.

As an employee, on most of your income (assuming you aren’t a higher rate tax payer) you will pay 20% tax, 12% employees NI and your employer will pay 13.8% employers NI, so thats 45.8% in tax and NI.

If you are self employed the equivalents are 20% tax, 9% Class 4 NI and £2.50 per week Class 2 NI, plus you can claim business related expenses that you probably wouldn’t get as an employee.

Whether employed or self employed you will get a tax free allowance of £7475.

For full details follow these links:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

So why isn’t everyone self employed?

Why not start by taking the HMRC test known as the ‘Employment Status Indicator’?

https://esi2calculator.hmrc.gov.uk/esi/app/index.html

You can take the test as many times as you wish and record the answers but if the result says you are really an employee then you need to speak to your employer and discuss the risks and liabilities that they will potentially face.

The most recent HMRC case on Employment Status relates to Weight Watchers and because HMRC successfully argued that their leaders were employees and not self employed it will cost Weight Watchers an estimated £23.5m in back taxes. When employment status goes wrong its the employer that gets the bill and often can’t recover the back taxes from the ‘employees’.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8501230/Weight-Watchers-to-employ-its-1700-slimming-leaders.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/7346758/Taxman-forces-slimmers-to-put-on-weight.html

One possible solution is to use Limited Companies, because a Limited Company can never be treated as an employee. Plus there are tax advantages in Dividends. But be careful of the IR35 Rules, follow my blog links to find out more.

http://stevejbicknell.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/consultants-beware-of-ir35-use-the-qdos-model-contract-free/

http://stevejbicknell.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/salary-vs-dividend-how-much-money-could-i-save/

http://stevejbicknell.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/things-you-need-to-know-about-dividends/

IR35 came into existance in 1999,  it was created to prevent workers previously employed from creating a limited company and then benefiting from lower taxes and national insurance through the use of dividends and expenses.

Follow my blog for more useful facts, tips, suggestions and ideas.

steve@bicknells.net

Consultants beware of IR35 – use the QDOS Model Contract (Free) 1

Accounting, Bicknell Business Adviser, Free Things • Tags: , , , , ,

IR35 came into existance in 1999,  it was created to prevent workers previously employed from creating a limited company and then benefiting from lower taxes and national insurance through the use of dividends and expenses.

HMRC believed that it would generate £220 million a year in National Insurance Contributions and £80 million in Income Tax, but it has actually only generated around £1.5 million a year and HMRC have brought a number of cases before the courts, the latest being MBF Design Services Ltd v Revenue and Customs (2011) and ECR Conculting Ltd v Revenue and Customs, the taxpayer was successful in both cases.

I was reading an article in Accounting Practice about the MBF Design case and HMRC assisted a Foreign Airbus UK employee to prepare his statement but apparently because the employee struggled to read the statement or be examined on it the tribunal were unconvinced.

I have always found QDOS to be an invaluable source of help in the field of IR35 and you can download free guides and contracts using this link

http://www.qdosconsulting.com/freelancer-contractor/free-guides-templates

steve@bicknells.net