Who's the employer ?

CIS

Asking for a 3rd party. if anyone has ideas it would be appreciated.

So,

S uses an employment agency, R, who find work for S.

Payroll is ran via an 'employment intermediary ', Paymax, who charge a weekly fee for running the payroll and issuing the payslips etc.

Who, for the purposes of tax etc, is the actual employer. Is it R, who find all the work etc, or P the 'employment intermediary'.

Presumably as all the work is done through one agency, who find work across a range of approx 20 sites, S would be unable to just submit an invoice, be paid direct and register for self employment ?

motorguy

I would have thought its R.

unforeseen

It will be R. P is just a company that R have outsourced their payroll functions to. No different to some small companies

CIS

Thanks -

Just checked some details and it does appear the payslips are being paid as PAYE. The correct employer is an issue which needs updating at HMRC as they currently seem to have the payroll company listed as the employer - possibly a mixup as the payroll company also do umbrella company work.

Second questions:

A weekly charge is being deducted from the gross wage, apparently as a payroll fee. On the basis that the job is being paid PAYE and it appears R is the employer, can this be done ?

mr_munchem

It would be R, but this should normally be made clear on registration forms etc.

The fact that they are outsourcing their payroll is irrelevant as the company paying is R.

mr_munchem

CIS wrote: »

Thanks -

Just checked some details and it does appear the payslips are being paid as PAYE. The correct employer is an issue which needs updating at HMRC as they currently seem to have the payroll company listed as the employer - possibly a mixup as the payroll company also do umbrella company work.

Second questions:

A weekly charge is being deducted from the gross wage, apparently as a payroll fee. On the basis that the job is being paid PAYE and it appears R is the employer, can this be done ?

Deductions from pay have very specific criteria to be legal. See http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4125.

It may be that this is a condition of the contract (although really odd...). If the employee is being paid the (or near) the national minimum/living wage there is a possibility they are being paid under this minimum and that is very illegal!

CIS

mr_munchem wrote: »

Deductions from pay have very specific criteria to be legal. See http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4125.

It may be that this is a condition of the contract (although really odd...). If the employee is being paid the (or near) the national minimum/living wage there is a possibility they are being paid under this minimum and that is very illegal!

Thanks.

The wage isn't actually a bad one - £17.50 p/h minimum (sometimes as much as £50 p/h where they've been struggling to find staff at the last minute.)

mr_munchem

CIS wrote: »

Thanks.

The wage isn't actually a bad one - £17.50 p/h minimum (sometimes as much as £50 p/h where they've been struggling to find staff at the last minute.)

This shouldn't create a NMW/NLW problem then! (lucky person!). However, there are still very strict criteria for pay deductions which it should be ensured they are adhering to.

sangie595

Just as an observation, umbrella companies also issue PAYE pay slips. Being PAYE does not mean the individual is not a contractor and registered with an umbrella company, not a payroll company. I think there had been a surmise that the agency is the employer - I'm not seeing any evidence of that actually, and no evidence that payroll is outsourced for the agency. It may be the case. But there's nothing here that definitively evidences that. There is, however, some evidence that this is a contractor relationship and there is no employer in the sense that the OP means. That would account for the charge too.