working for the same company on an employed and self employed basis

ryno

Hi all

Hopefully someone out there can help with my predicament. I am currently an employee for a company working as a field engineer. I have long been considering taking the limited company or self employed route so I can carry out my own work along with sub contracting back to my current employer to begin with to guarantee a regular income. All seemed to be fairly straight forward stuff until a hitch was discovered. Basically there are aspects of work that my employer carries out that regulatory bodies insist that only company employees can carry out. What a headache this is turning out to be!

The only solution I can think of is to remain employed but on some kind of 0 hours contract etc and also carry on with my original plan of sub contracting to the company. My question is would this be acceptable with the inland revenue etc as there really is no financial gain intended from this. I assume they would have to pay me something as an employee to justify the employment?


Any help very much appreciated!!

Ryno

ryno

My aim is to be sub contracting back to my employer for 3-4 days a week and doing my own work 1-2 days a week for the 1st year.

Masomnia

If there's no financial gain why would you want to give yourself less security? Give up holiday pay, sick pay, redundancy rights, right to claim unfair dismissal etc etc?

If you're basically doing the same thing each day then being self employed for part of it and an employee for the rest won't wash. You don't really get to decide whether your self-employed or an employee, it really depends on the facts of the relationship between you and the company as to which you are.

ryno

The end goal is to be carrying out my own work full time within a few years. Sub contracting to my current employer would enable me the freedom to gradually build my own client base whilst also having work available when I do not have my own.

ryno

By no financial gain I meant there wouldn’t be any by being employed and self employed at the same time. I’ve done the figures and I’m definitely better off self employed. It’s just the issue of not being able to sub contract back to my current employer as some aspects of the work they do are regulated by 3rd parties who require the work carried out to be done by an employee and not a sub contractor

Masomnia

I see what you're getting at. At the end of the day it's your 'employer' taking the risk that they're not doing your PAYE properly and it turning out a few years down that you're owed holiday pay and sick pay for the past however many years. So you can ask nicely, but if you meet the provisions for being an employee, and they're obliged to provide you with work, you're obliged to do it, they provide the 'tools' for your job etc I think it's unlikely they'll agree. Good luck anyway.

ryno

It’s definitely a difficult one. I’m determined to go it alone but being able to sub contract back to my current employer would make the whole thing easier and more financially sound as I wouldn’t be short of work.

Plenty to think about. Thanks for your advice!👍

Samsung_Note2

Why not do both..you can have your contract with the normal PAYE stuff with your employer for 3 days or what ever you feel is the correct amount of days to cover the work where your employers client insist on using directly employed people.
Then register as self employed and work for the employer just send them an invoice or anyone else you feel like..being officially part time they would take care of your Tax and NI and simply add that to your self assessment when filled out.

unforeseen

HMRC would probably consider that the OP is not actually self employed when they are doing work substantially the same as his PAYE work and also it is work that they did as a PAYE employee with the same emoyer prior to this.

Potbellypig

If you do it the way you're suggesting, I'd be triple checking you don't fall inside IR35. That will cost you a lot further down the line.

Ozzuk

How does the company feel about this? It doesn't sound a great deal for them, your self employed rate will need to be much higher to be worthwhile (I think contract salary equates to about 88% of PAYE salary for comparison). The risk is they'll just find someone else. What happens if your regulatory work falls on a day that you are working self employed? How will that work with liabilty and insurance? What if you are working for someone else when you are needed by employer? Or even the other way...contract work needs more time.

It's possible none of these are issues, but you need to think about them.