Employed or self employed

paddyo999

Hi

i have been working for the same person for 5 years now. I have been told by people that I should be PAYE but not sure what the differences are.  Any advice would be appreciated.
I am a landscaper/gardener 
I only worked for same person
he tells me on a weekly/daily bases where to work and what to do.
i wear his branded clothes. ( he purchases)
I use his company van everyday.
I use only his tools etc.
I get paid an hourly rate and invoice him just total hours.
I only earn approx 12k a year.

I am a little worried as someone said I might have to pay loads of fines etc.

Paddy

DullGreyGuy

Do you get sick pay or paid time off?

There is the third class of "worker" which sits between Employee and Sole Trader and is what Uber's former self employed drivers were deemed to be when they challenged the fact they were sole traders.

The risk is generally bigger for him as he's the one that would have to pay you back money for holiday and sickness if you aren't already paid these, pay the Employers NI and potentially the consequences of not having Employer Liability insurance etc. 

paddyo999

Hi

thanks for the response. I am not paid any holiday pay or sick pay. I only ever get paid by the hour for work done for his customers. Occasionally I get an Xmas bonus. I have paid my NI and Tax each year since being told I had to do the self assessment. 

So in theory I have done nothing wrong? I looked on Gov.uk but not really making much sense to me. (Something that’s not that hard)
my main concern was the tax man starts sending me nasty letters asking for money.

i appreciate your help

paddy

sammyjammy

If you only earn £12k why are you paying any tax?  If you invoice him at what hourly rate do you do so?  In my opinion you are an employee.

paddyo999

I went over the tax threshold one year I think I earned 13,600 but normally it’s the NI stuff.  I now earn £14 ph but I only work part time around the kids school etc. I have never had any expenses. So my self assessment is really straightforward. 

Undervalued

paddyo999 said:

Hi

i have been working for the same person for 5 years now. I have been told by people that I should be PAYE but not sure what the differences are.  Any advice would be appreciated.
I am a landscaper/gardener 
I only worked for same person
he tells me on a weekly/daily bases where to work and what to do.
i wear his branded clothes. ( he purchases)
I use his company van everyday.
I use only his tools etc.
I get paid an hourly rate and invoice him just total hours.
I only earn approx 12k a year.

I am a little worried as someone said I might have to pay loads of fines etc.

Paddy

Providing you are declaring your income and paying any tax / NI due, then any comeback for getting your employment status wrong would normally be against the "employer" and not the "employee".

I assume you are getting a higher hourly rate than you would expect as an employee to compensate for the lack of employee benefits such as paid holiday, sick pay etc etc?

baser999

Used to work for HMRC (albeit many many years ago) and a rough rule of thumb was the master-servant relationship. Given all the points you have outlined about single employer, wearing their uniform, using their tools, his company van etc you really wouldn’t have a chance of showing you were self-employed. But as I say, my HMRC employment was many years ago

paddyo999

To the best of my knowledge I have paid all that I owed. My wage is £14 ph. Most self employed are charging £22.5 here an hour but that’s direct to customers

General_Grant

paddyo999 said:

To the best of my knowledge I have paid all that I owed. My wage is £14 ph. Most self employed are charging £22.5 here an hour but that’s direct to customers

But you are being told by this organisation that you are self-employed.  Therefore you are providing a service direct to your customer.  So why charging only two-thirds of the going rate?

DullGreyGuy

General_Grant said:

paddyo999 said:

To the best of my knowledge I have paid all that I owed. My wage is £14 ph. Most self employed are charging £22.5 here an hour but that’s direct to customers

But you are being told by this organisation that you are self-employed.  Therefore you are providing a service direct to your customer.  So why charging only two-thirds of the going rate?

As the organisation is supplying the stream of customers saving the OP from having to do marketing, promotional rates, customer management, credit control and a host of other activities that don't directly get paid for.

General_Grant

DullGreyGuy said:

General_Grant said:

paddyo999 said:

To the best of my knowledge I have paid all that I owed. My wage is £14 ph. Most self employed are charging £22.5 here an hour but that’s direct to customers

But you are being told by this organisation that you are self-employed.  Therefore you are providing a service direct to your customer.  So why charging only two-thirds of the going rate?

As the organisation is supplying the stream of customers saving the OP from having to do marketing, promotional rates, customer management, credit control and a host of other activities that don't directly get paid for.

So isn't this a reason for the OP not being self-employed?