I took on 3 full time staff part way through Oct 2020 can i Furlough them at their agreed salary?

I'm surprised you don't have an accountant to advise you, just a book keeper - something ti think about.

Anyway the best people to ask how to calculate partial October furlough payments is HMRC, try asking direct.

Still confused here, they are either employed previously by someone else ( agency ), or they were employed by themselves ( self employed ). But to say they were employed by you but not on PAYE ( if above the threshold ) is illegal.

 

Yes I was employing them previously on a freelance basis... then paye from middle of October. Yes it may have been illegal but the idea was to sort it out ASAP. Which is what I did

 

There is no such thing as employing on a freelance basis. I think this is an issue with your understanding on employment.

See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax

 

Ah thanks for pointing that out. Now they are on PAYE and I am hoping I can Furlough all 3 of them Using their salaries as the reference rather than he rti payment made in Oct. I will forward this to my bookkeeper and my accountant and see if they can do a bit more digging ... Thankyou

 

You've been given the correct answer, but you don't want to hear it

If you start asking HMRC to allow for your illegal 'employment' practices you stand to lose a lot more than you will gain

 

Can't believe what I'm reading here.

It's like the guy on the radio last week complaining he couldn't get one of the grants for his business because he doesn't pay business rates. And owns the garages he keeps his used cars in for sale so doesn't have to pay rent. And complaining he can't get help.

Advisor on the radio was gobsmacked that he was angry he couldn't get something he wasn't entitled to.

Let's hope the employees of this guy see the discussion and pop themselves along to a tribunal to claim what they are owed.

 

Hey the employees PAYE is paid up to date but i won't be able to keep these payments up for much longer without help. Thanks for your opinion

 

Okayyyyy
From reading this thread and the way that the OP phrases things I believe that English is not his first language and it seems to me that the word freelance should be replaced with the word casual.
It’s not illegal to employ casual staff and if the op was ‘trying something new in an existing business’ as stated, it doesn’t necessarily seem like an abuse of the system.
More of a surprise is that having been in business for 29 years the op and book keeper don’t understand how furlough pay works.

 

To be fair very few employers will have 29 years experience of furlough. At best many have 10 months experience this month.

 

Not really relevant to my point.

 

Yet quite relevant to the surprise. Being in business 29 years is irrelevant to furlough if it's brand new last year.

 

I don’t get my kicks arguing with strangers on the internet.
If you think it’s par for the course that neither the man that has been in business for 29 years nor his book keeper can navigate payroll, ok, fine with me.

 

It does not matter. It is certainly not illegal to employ casual staff but if they are earning more than £120 per week they have to be put through payroll from day 1 and someone who has been in business for 29 years and employed staff should know that.

Furlough only came into existence 10 months ago. The rules keep changing. I have far more sympathy with not knowing how furlough works than not knowing how legal employment works.

 

Contracted hours are contracted hours.
Zero hours are averages.

 

I gave the answer at the end of my first post. The amount you can claim is based on the amount declared to HMRC.

 

And I don't get my kicks providing or implying bad information.
The problem isn't payroll - the problem is the far more recent furlough. Experience with payroll appears to not matter when dealing with something that is new.

 

In this paper from HMRC talking about CJRS reference period. Can the reference period be taken from the start of employment (considering employees taken on during October 2020) and therefore be calculated by the hourly pay and agreed hours of employment going forward considering CJRS? cheers Lee