Wages, self employement, umbrella company etc

chrisv401

Hello to everyone.

Here is my situation. Me and other employees were all self employed. At the end of the month everyone give the invoice so they can pay us. We normally do self assesment at the end of each tax year. However we were FORCED to go through some company, I believe its umbrella company. They pay us weekly now, like employement agencies. Details on the payslips are:gross, tax 15%, fee, net amount. For last couple of weeks they have changed tax 15% to a retainer 15%. From my quick reaserch should they pay us some form of holiday ? Also are there any expenses that the employee dont even have to show receipt ? No expenses are included on the slips. I need advice becasue all this looks dodgy to me and Im loosing out on this. There is no benefit for us, just wasting money to pay for the fees.

Regards

scheming_gypsy

I don't think anybody can force you to use an umbrella company, it sounds as though they forced you into believing that it was the only way and you all went down that route.

Using an umbrella is a bit of a mix between being self employed and employed. You're employed by them but you should have all the tax benefits of being self employed; so if you provide fuel receipts you can get the tax breaks on 45p a mile and £5 a day on meals (£10 if you're out of the house for over 10 hours). You don't need to provide the receipts for meals but you're meant to keep them 'just in case'.
With the expenses they deduct them from your gross before paying tax so you pay less tax over all.

On the holiday side... yes they do pay holidays but they include it in the wage. I know on my pay slips they have the wage made up of something like: basic + holiday + comission; again that's possibly to do with not paying as much tax on it.

If you stick your details (hourly rate, hours, miles, etc) into http://www.paystream.co.uk/Umbrella_Overview/default.aspx it'll tell you how much you'd come out with if you used them, so you can use it as a comparison to see if you're being screwed.

Hammyman

chrisv401 wrote: »

Hello to everyone.

Here is my situation. Me and other employees were all self employed.

Well that's illegal for a start as you won't meet the criteria for being self employed. The rules are very strict and a company can't just decide you are self employed. Your company know this hence the following....

At the end of the month everyone give the invoice so they can pay us. We normally do self assesment at the end of each tax year. However we were FORCED to go through some company, I believe its umbrella company. They pay us weekly now, like employement agencies. Details on the payslips are:gross, tax 15%, fee, net amount. For last couple of weeks they have changed tax 15% to a retainer 15%. From my quick reaserch should they pay us some form of holiday ? Also are there any expenses that the employee dont even have to show receipt ? No expenses are included on the slips. I need advice becasue all this looks dodgy to me and Im loosing out on this. There is no benefit for us, just wasting money to pay for the fees.

Regards

The reason they are forcing you to do this is because they know that legally you should be employed meaning they have to pay employers NI and follow employment law.

Yes you should get holiday pay HOWEVER they get your holiday pay from the amount you are invoiced and I think that this is what the 15% retainer is.

You are all being royally screwed. A phone call to HMRC to report your employer for evading employers NI would see you all returned to the proper status of employee with proper rights.