Employing someone - wages, insurance ?

[DeLaCruz]

Looking to slowly expand and get someone to help on big jobs and also on the occasional day on their own - I have someone currently who seems like a good fit for the business. I wanted to know my best way to pay them - is it best to just pay by bank transfer and have them register self employed with HRMC ? If not how do you guys do it ?

I did skim a thread that said if you pay them less than £1K they don’t need to declare it to HRMC and I could still add the wages into my tax return in April 2023. That seems to good to be true.

Other considerations are van Insurace (lads 22 with clean licence), public liability and accident insurance ? Any info from past threads, internet resources would be greatly appreciated- as always thanks to this great community in advance ?

 

[ched999uk]

I would ask your accountant as employing vs self employed contractor is a bit of a minefield and if you get it wrong you are the one paying HMRC back!

 

[P4dstar]

The first thing you need to do is establish what this chap is. If he's a casual employee then he needs to be employed. If you're the only place he will work as self employed you're entering muddy waters.

You are correct that a self employed person can earn £1k without submitting a tax return to HMRC. Thats not a huge amount though over a whole year.

There is free software available for companies that employee less than 5 (maybe 10, I forget) people. It's through the government and is really simple apparently. Personally I pay my accountants office to run payroll.

The thing to note is if he is self employed he really should have his own PL insurance. You should then tell your PL that you employee bona fide sub contractors. If you employ him you absolutely, categorically, need to inform your PL. This will then mean you need employers liability. For perspective the average Pl cost may be £15pm or less. My latest quote including EL is £84pm with Gleaming.