payroll and earning under tax threshold

Pixiedust22

I work at a very small company that employs a few people on a casual basis, ie we fill in time sheets and the owner does a bank transfer each month. Most people who work there are students or have other commitments so work very few hours (for example I got paid £134 last month). I know that the one full time employee who works there is on PAYE so all the deductions for tax etc are done correctly, but I don't think anyone else is, it's just money transferred into bank accounts. Assuming the pay is low enough to not trigger any liability for tax or NI, is this all legal? I just want to make sure that no one gets in any trouble.

Comms69

Getting paid for working? yes perfectly legal.

Pixiedust22

No, no payslips.

pramsay13

glentoran99 wrote: »

and employer must be paying into a pension for every employee

Not necessarily:
Your employer must automatically enrol you into a pension scheme and make contributions to your pension if all of the following apply:

you’re classed as a ‘worker’
you’re aged between 22 and State Pension age
you earn at least £10,000 per year
you usually (‘ordinarily’) work in the UK (read the detailed guidance if you’re not sure)

Pixiedust22

None of us earn over £10000 a year - we work around 4-8 hours a week each - except for the one full-time employee and the owner does pay into a pension for him. There would be no liability for tax or NI (or employer's NI) so no one's avoiding paying anything, but I wasn't sure if they'd still need to register us with HMRC.

sammyjammy

Pixiedust22 wrote: »

None of us earn over £10000 a year - we work around 4-8 hours a week each - except for the one full-time employee and the owner does pay into a pension for him. There would be no liability for tax or NI (or employer's NI) so no one's avoiding paying anything, but I wasn't sure if they'd still need to register us with HMRC.

I would imagine the answer is yes they should be registered otherwise their earnings won't register the the Real time earnings system which is shared with DWP.

BorisThomson

glentoran99 wrote: »

you should still be getting a payslip.

Not necessarily, if you're a worker as opposed to an employee you're not entitled to a payslip. A casual worker as described here may well fall under this provision.

Pixiedust22

Gosh this sounds complicated. Our timesheets do say casual workers. I may just call up the company's accountants and see what they say.

BorisThomson

Pixiedust22 wrote: »

Gosh this sounds complicated. Our timesheets do say casual workers. I may just call up the company's accountants and see what they say.

It's not complicated, just one poster is giving inaccurate information!

Does the accountant do the payroll? If so they'll take care of HMRC registration. I'd only call them with your employer's knowledge, they may not take kindly to you doing so behind their back (the accountant will tell them).

Pixiedust22

The accountant does the payroll for the one full-time employee, the rest of us essentially have a spreadsheet with our hours tallied up on it and then owner pays us directly. I don't think any of us are added to payroll so the accountant wouldn't know to register us with HRMC. I would, of course, ask owner first, but he would probably want me to sort it for him...

Just from looking online, it does seem "worker" applies more than "employee".