Employing Casual Labour

[OasisGardening]

I run a gardening business which I have operated on my own for the last 2 years.

I don't have enough work ongoing to need to employ a person, however, based on my experience last year as the business has grown, there are times where an extra pair of hands would be useful for one off jobs, so my ideal would be to employ "casual labour" to bring someone in to help as 7 when I need help.

The nature of this work would mean that it would be a payment by cash / cheque rather than through PAYE, so how would I stand from a PAYE & NI position? Would I still be liable for paying the "employees" tax & NI on what they earn with me?

[David Griffiths]

It doesn't matter whether the employee is full time or casual, the same PAYE procedures have to be followed (and the same procedures to ensure that the employee is entitled to work in the UK)

If you fail to deduct PAYE, then you will be liable yourself

No doubt this will cue the normal stream of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the system being unfair, and too much work, but that's the way it is.

[OasisGardening]

Originally Posted by David Griffiths

It doesn't matter whether the employee is full time or casual, the same PAYE procedures have to be followed (and the same procedures to ensure that the employee is entitled to work in the UK)

If you fail to deduct PAYE, then you will be liable yourself

No doubt this will cue the normal stream of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the system being unfair, and too much work, but that's the way it is.

Thanks for the reply.

And there's no minimum work amount cut off for these procedures to kick-in - so even if they only end up doing one days work I still need to go through the PAYE procedures?

[sanjiv]

If the helper was self-employed and wrote you an invoice for their work, you would not need to worry about PAYE and NI and they would pay this themselves on their Tax Return. It is only if you employ them that you have to pay them through PAYE.

[smo]

I'd go down the cheque payment and let them sort it self-employed basis, you can safely assume that a labourer who works on odd-jobs would be doing this for several companies to allow earning of a decent income, hence PAYE wouldnt be suited as it would be a split tax-code nightmare!

[David Griffiths]

Originally Posted by OasisGardening

Thanks for the reply.

And there's no minimum work amount cut off for these procedures to kick-in - so even if they only end up doing one days work I still need to go through the PAYE procedures?

'fraid so

Originally Posted by sanjiv

If the helper was self-employed and wrote you an invoice for their work, you would not need to worry about PAYE and NI and they would pay this themselves on their Tax Return. It is only if you employ them that you have to pay them through PAYE.

Originally Posted by smo

I'd go down the cheque payment and let them sort it self-employed basis, you can safely assume that a labourer who works on odd-jobs would be doing this for several companies to allow earning of a decent income, hence PAYE wouldnt be suited as it would be a split tax-code nightmare!

But it's the "employer" that is fully responsible for getting the worker's employment status correct. You can't just decide that somebody is self employed. If an HMRC inspector disagreed they would assess the employer for the full amount of tax and NI on grossed up wages

[sanjiv]

Originally Posted by smo

I'd go down the cheque payment and let them sort it self-employed basis, you can safely assume that a labourer who works on odd-jobs would be doing this for several companies to allow earning of a decent income, hence PAYE wouldnt be suited as it would be a split tax-code nightmare!

Originally Posted by David Griffiths

But it's the "employer" that is fully responsible for getting the worker's employment status correct. You can't just decide that somebody is self employed. If an HMRC inspector disagreed they would assess the employer for the full amount of tax and NI on grossed up wages

The worker would decide he is self employed and invoice the OP. It is then surely the workers duty to make sure he pays his tax. The OP is just using the services of another company.

[aurel]

does not exist such think as casual labour(tax exempt) , you need to be registered with the tax office as a contractor ,then each time you employ someone (even for half day work) you need to ring accounts office give the details and they will give you a verification code where you will pay the tax for the said worker at the percentage stated by them. You don't decide the tax rate or his employment status hm revenue does that, if it happens to be registered as self employed then they will know , if hes not allowed to work they will tell you that as well ; Just ring tax office with all details of the worker to cover yourself ,if you don't get a verification number don't employ him/her because you won't be able to pay the taxes for that salary and will be considered as black market work. Your accountant should be able to help you with this

[David Griffiths]

Originally Posted by sanjiv

The worker would decide he is self employed

Plain wrong. The employer is responsible for deciding the status of the worker, and is the one that carries the can if the decision is incorrect.

[estwig]

Pay 'em cash outta your pocket.