One of the very slimmed down areas of the Finance Bill that escaped the “cull” is off-payroll working and we see a large number of employee’s in this category in areas such as the BBC, hospitals and councils.
As such any public authority that plans to offer a temporary job to someone who works through their own intermediary - often their own company, an agency or partnership or another person, will need to decide whether the off-payroll working rules apply to their employment.
The rules are in place to make sure that, where an individual would have been an employee if they were providing their services directly, they pay broadly the same tax and National Insurance contributions as an employee would in the same role. Another example of the government attempting to standardize contributions for all workers in the UK.
The public authority employer will need to decide whether the off-payroll working rules apply because the appropriate conditions have been met and will need to deduct tax and national insurance if they pay the worker directly. If the worker is paid by an agency or other labour provider, they’ll need to tell the body that pays the worker the off-payroll working rules should apply.
To support employers further, Gov. have released updated information to assist in the process and decision making and can be found here.
