Employing family for secretarial duties and administrative activities

Marcon

neil5061 said:

Hello all.
I am a locum doctor. My mother does all my administrative work i.e keeping track of expenses, tax returns, ensuring I am up to date with regulatory requirements etc.
I would like to pay her but not "employ" her. 
Would it be reasonable to pay her £10000 per year for this. 
Can she simply invoice me as a self employed accountant so that I simply pay her the 10000 and she deals with NI and tax when she files her return?
Thanks

I'm not sure this would pass HMRC's test of being self employed unless she has other clients. If she does, and is already registered with HMRC as self employed, should be fine.

mrsS_2

As a self employed accountant she will need a hmrc money laundering registration which now costs £400 pa plus £40 for the fit and proper test.  She will need money laundering risk assessment.  If she does not register and puts income from accountancy on her tax return she will be prosecuted.   

Marcon

mrsS_2 said:

As a self employed accountant she will need a hmrc money laundering registration which now costs £400 pa plus £40 for the fit and proper test.  She will need money laundering risk assessment.  If she does not register and puts income from accountancy on her tax return she will be prosecuted.   

So she'd be better as a self employed administrator, assuming she meets the criteria for being self employed.

neil5061

 She gets the tax returns read i.e calculated total expenses and I actually submit it so it would be more administrative and booking shifts etc is the bulk of her work. Probably 6 hours a week. 

Marcon

neil5061 said:

 She gets the tax returns read i.e calculated total expenses and I actually submit it so it would be more administrative and booking shifts etc is the bulk of her work. Probably 6 hours a week. 

£10K sounds pretty reasonable. If she isn't able to get approval for self employment, employing her may not be the big deal you fear. Your household insurance may cover employer's liability (if it doesn't, cover is not expensive and easy to obtain); HMRC provides free payroll software which is a doddle to use; and if she doesn't earn more than £10K she doesn't have to be auto-enrolled into a pension scheme.