Should they be self employed

rose28454

My daughter works in a small coffee shop for about 8 hours a week and there is another lady who does the same. They get paid cash and do not pay any tax and ni normally as they are well under the tax and ni thresholds. However he is has reached the VAT threshold and so has told the ladies this morning they will have to become self employed.
I dont this can be right. Neither of them work anywhere else so not sure he is correct

Jakg

If the employer has to tell the employee they are self employed... it's a fair guess they aren't actually self employed.

ACG

There is a questionnaire on the HMRC which can confirm if they re employed or self employed. EDIT - found the link - https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-employment-status-for-tax/setup

General rule of thumb - if you are told where to be, when to be there and given the tools to use (ie a coffee machine), you are employed.

In your daughters case, she is 100% employed from what you have said. Ridiculous that she is being told something different. Difficult for your daughter as it is hard to argue back against the boss of the company. But it might be worth doing the HMRC test and explaining that she is actually employed.

Realistically the boss does not want to be liable for a pension, sick pay, holiday pay and so on. If your daughter has been there less than 2 years she needs to be careful on how she deals with it.

Dox

How does reaching the VAT threshold impact on their employment status? Their employer (which he certainly is) sounds very confused.

Masomnia

ACG wrote: »

Realistically the boss does not want to be liable for a pension, sick pay, holiday pay and so on. If your daughter has been there less than 2 years she needs to be careful on how she deals with it.

If she is dismissed for asserting her statutory rights it will be unfair regardless of length of service.

ACG

Masomnia wrote: »

If she is dismissed for asserting her statutory rights it will be unfair regardless of length of service.

I dont disagree, but if the employer is prepared to do what they can to get out of their responsibilities I am pretty sure they will find a reason to get rid of the OPs daughter.