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Self Employed, WTC, and paid holiday

Diverse_Synergy
Diverse_Synergy Posts: 10 Forumite
edited 18 September 2014 at 11:09PM in Benefits & tax credits
Hello good MSE people!

Having checked the various rules around Working Tax Credits, it seems nowhere is there any guidance or limits on what constitutes a "reasonable" amount of paid vacation for the self employed.

For example, say I'm self employed and normally work 30 hours a week, and I grant myself 4 weeks' paid vacation a year - then presumably HMRC would have no problem with this, as it seems reasonable.

But say I took 10 weeks' paid vacation? 20? 51? At what point I am not actually working full time but just permanently on holiday!?

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • HMRC have interpreted the legislation, which requires the number of hours you 'normally' do as allowing breaks for up to 4 weeks without your normal working hours being affected.

    Beyond that, you would find it hard to show your 'normal' hours had not changed and that you were no longer in qualifying remunerative work. It would be open to challenge at appeal though.

    IQ
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    If your main client is a school then you could take 13 weeks leave per year at the same time as the school and that is acceptable. That's in the notes somewhere. I suppose it depends on your clients and the work that you do.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • Icequeen99
    Icequeen99 Posts: 3,775 Forumite
    Icequeen99 wrote: »
    HMRC have interpreted the legislation, which requires the number of hours you 'normally' do as allowing breaks for up to 4 weeks without your normal working hours being affected.

    Beyond that, you would find it hard to show your 'normal' hours had not changed and that you were no longer in qualifying remunerative work. It would be open to challenge at appeal though.

    IQ

    I should have mentioned the exceptions for term time workers and those who have a recognisable cycle to employment of a year- their calculation of the working hours is slightly different.

    In their situation, any of the periods of leave are disregarded in looking at working hours so you only consider term time hours.

    IQ
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