Yesterday's Sunday Times carried a letter (click on the link) in its small business section. Specifically, how do you know when someoen who apparently works for you is self-employed or on your payroll?
I know a couple of people who've suffered from this, and indeed one who's going to start having a problem if he isn't careful. The criteria can are several. First, do you have more than one client? Bit of a giveaway if you don't. Second, can your client tell you when and where to work? This one's a little flexible; actors are often self-employed and it would be a bit of a problem if David Tennant had decided to work from home for the Christmas episode of Doctor Who.
The thing is, if someone purports to be self-employed and they're not, it's the company as well as the individual that gets chased. And reasonably so, since self-employment is too often used as a cost-saving measure by unscrupulous employers. It's worth checking, though. If you were employing people who describe themselves as self-employed but the tax office deemed them to be employed, you'd suffer. Now, take a look at those cleaners and ask yourself, honestly, do they work for you or themselves..?
