"And someone said the girls doesnt earn enough to pay NI and thats why they are not registered as an employees. That could cose you some problems with the taxman in the future, because if they do not earn enough they can't support themselves. But I am not deep into this thing and do not accept this as a sure thing please"
Perry, that someone was myself, and you are way off the mark with that coment I'm afraid. It will not cause me any problems with the taxman, as it was them I rang and spoke to in the first place when I took on my first employee. I enquired how I would go about registering them but the IR explained that as their earning were below the Tax and NI threshold that they do not require registering with the IR. Also as they are only working 16 hours a week they are entitled to Working Families Tax Credit, which will bring their income up to a liveable standard.
There are hundreds of other Agencies adopting that practice, yes you are right there are, but the IR have caught onto this and are in the process of changing the way companies like us employ their staff. I was also advised by an Accountant and my Business Advisor NOT to go the 'self-employed' route for staff purely because of what the IR are doing!
Not only that but I have much more 'control' if that is the right word to use, over my employee's with them working for me, rather than if they worked for themselves via me! I have alot less instances of sickness or them just wanting a day off for the hell of it, than if they were self-employed!
I worked for a cleaning agency myself on the 'self-employed' basis, so I know the business from both sides...........I will admit that sometimes I would wake up in the morning not wanting to work, and I knew I was getting paid each day I worked (which was every day). But there were some Cleaners who occassionally took the day off without warning, it made no difference to their pocket as it always had cash in it, if you like, and I would often get calls from the Agency asking if I could stand in at the last minute!
I decided I didn't want my girls adopting that practice, and I have far less incidences of sickness or unreliability as the Agency I worked for did!
After 8 months of research and putting together a 35 page business plan I launched my business knowing (as best I did at the time) that I had covered everything I needed to in order to make my business work best for me, my Cleaners and my Clients (not necessarily in that order). I have very little or no stress, very little paperwork and very little expenditure (hence I can keep my prices low in comparison to other companies).
good luck anyway Lynda!
Jan
