Advice on contracts

[rassic]

Dear all,

We are looking for a advice on contructing a contract one will be for the customer for the service we provided and another for our contractor. We have the contents of both the contracts prepared but would like a lawyer to give them a legal MOT.

Is it a necessity to ask for legal assistance or is it just adviseable?

Many thanks
Rassic

 

[gary]

It's certainly advisable - a few quid now could save you a lot of trouble and money later if something goes wrong.

Gary

 

[gj]

Hi Rassic

I would suggest you get someone to look over the contractor contract as I believe from your previous posting that the contractor would be self employed (rather than a limited company). This puts a risk on you in that the Inland Revenue could later determine that the subcontractor is effectively an employee and you could end up paying tax and national insurance that would have been deducted had they been treated as an employye from the outset, plus employers National Insurance, plus penalties and interest. The Revenue will look at the contract (as well as what actually occurs in practice) to determine whether the person is effectively an employee or not.

By putting some key clauses into the contract, you could greatly enhance your chances of persuading the Revenue that the person is genuinle self employed. Better still would be for them to operate through their own limited company, with a suitably worded contract between yourselves and their limited company.

We have a fair amount of experience in this area send me a PM or email if you want to discuss. If you email me the draft contract, I am happy to provide some feedback (from an accountancy/tax viewpoint).

On the terms and conditions, the lawyer MOT seems sensible, and it shouldn't be too expensive - you should be able to get a lawyer to do this for a fixed fee I would think

Regards



Graham

 

[Balls]

I would advice against drafting any contracts yourself or by anyone other than a lawyer. It would be the best advice you could possible get and the best investment you could possibly make.

The fine line between contractor and employee is often breached and only recognised when litigation results. It is an area fraught with dangers.

Balls

 

[Limeone]

We have been asked by a lot of clients to do this. Only one passed with no amendments and many needed completely rewriting. We do contract MOT's for a fixed cost and give you a report which deals with the items that need work so can either amend yourself or get a new contract dealt with by us or another legal service provider.

Contractors' contracts are rapidly changing due to the vast amount of case law in this area. If you send over an email to [email protected] I will send you our free fact sheet on this.