Self Employed-Corona Virus Self Help

[Lady Elanore]

I reckon many people on this site are self-employed and deeply affected by the latest shutting down of businesses. I have a limited company and am self-employed, as such the only thing I am eligible for is universal credit. This is nowhere near compensation for the enforced cancelling of my work. Anyone else in a similar pickle and got any ideas? 

[lol-lol]

39 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

I reckon many people on this site are self-employed and deeply affected by the latest shutting down of businesses. I have a limited company and am self-employed, as such the only thing I am eligible for is universal credit. This is nowhere near compensation for the enforced cancelling of my work. Anyone else in a similar pickle and got any ideas? 

 

UK government has got the financial solution all wrong IMO so it is all wrong for all sectors not just self employed.

 

The 5m in your type of business should be getting near instance tax rebates IMO. Corporate tax, VAT etc should be suspended and in fact a normal month's tax refunded ASAP.

 

So in a nutshell the Employees subsiding is not going to work and this poor plan will put hundreds of thousand if not millions out of work as many employers will work out there is little point in paying many employees even 20% of the £2.5k and the self employed situation is difficult to read even if HMRC use historic records to extrapolate.

 

So trade bodies, as is the Labour party and TUC are pushing for reversed taxation, cheques in the post assuming March 2020 onwards are scrub months. My old department should be working on that not this stupid application and assess and the send out money which is going to take many weeks for most.

 

Best of luck and hope you can get back tax you have paid in to the system over the years.

Edited 21 March, 2020 by lol-lol

[Lady Elanore]

I'd like to see an immediate £5K corporation tax relief. Most of us have our Corporation tax put aside for payment once our accounts are done. I't sitting there in a bank, ready to and the government doesn't need to do anything except say we can have it (tax fee hopefully). The government doesn't even need to find the money, we already have it (obviously they won't see that money into their coffers next financial year). Of course if we still can't go back to work in say 4-5 months then we need some other help. Universal tax credits don't even 'touch the sides'

[moley]

I'm self employed and at the moment I have enough work to go to. My problem is with restaurants closed I will be eating no so healthy food while I'm away. I'm wondering if the hotels I go to will still cook meals and let you eat them in the room. I had 2 1/2 weeks of work in Europe postponed from last Monday, but I have soon filled up the next three weeks. The next problem will be if any customers close through lack of orders. One customer next week is a main supplier to the UK car manufacturers, so it's OK to go in because the machines I need to service will be free from production. I also sell spares, so this week I only went out to one job, but made a reasonable income in supplying parts.

If I were in a position where I had no work at all I would sit down and think what could else could I do to make money, not necessarily right now, but in the future. In the economic downturn of 2008 I became an agent for a German company for spare parts for the machinery I work on as the work was dropping off slightly. I take a commission for everything I sell. Within a few weeks my normal work picked up again, but I had an additional income from these sales. This then again expanded the business as the German company then wanted me to go to jobs around the world when they were too busy or were not familiar with the machines.

Think what you are good and how you could expand what you are doing.

[@Lee]

Quote

Temporary Income Protection Fund for the self-employed and freelancers 

We are writing to you as a collective group of organisations representing the UK’s five million self-employed and freelance workers, regarding the support available to them during the coronavirus crisis.

https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/news/open-letter-temporary-income-protection-fund-self-employed-and-freelancers

I think Rishi Sunak will be getting a lot of pressure from various fronts. Maybe an announcement coming in the next week?
An aside; 'Hi risk anus' is an anagram of Rishi Sunak.

[lol-lol]

1 hour ago, Lady Elanore said:

I'd like to see an immediate £5K corporation tax relief. Most of us have our Corporation tax put aside for payment once our accounts are done. I't sitting there in a bank, ready to and the government doesn't need to do anything except say we can have it (tax fee hopefully). The government doesn't even need to find the money, we already have it (obviously they won't see that money into their coffers next financial year). Of course if we still can't go back to work in say 4-5 months then we need some other help. Universal tax credits don't even 'touch the sides'

 

Just raise all the tax thresholds by a factor of 2 or 3 so people actually get a pay back in their March 2020 pay/returns as well as HMRC assuming March 2020 was a dud month and no tax, except perhaps Excise taxes, suspended from 1st March 2020 until at least 1st July but probably 1st of October or Jan next year.

 

Enjoying my daughter's Canal+/Fox "World of Worlds", make Covid-19 look like a tea party !

[Lady Elanore]

The way ltd companies like myself operate, raising tax thresholds wouldn't really help, unless they were to give some Corporation tax back (most of it). The only personal tax we pay is Dividend tax at 7.5% of our Dividends. Corporation tax is 19% of the whole dividend. So if i was to take £1,000 out of the company, I'd put away an additional £190 for the corporation tax and then put £75 - from the £1,000 drawn - away for my dividend tax. So for every £1,000 in my pocket (after your allowance of just over £8600 a year) I put away £265 in to various accounts ready for tax demands. Dividend tax kicks in after the first £2,000 is taken and continues on all dividends after that. The game is not to hit personal high rate tax and not trigger NI employer payments.

 

Of course you have to also put some money aside for sick pay and holiday leave, neither of which I get as a right, so I have to fund it myself from the company. This is what I am living on now, but I can not sustain it for the next 10 months or longer. This is the bit that people often forget when they think we are raking it in and cheating the government 😞 

 

[xman]

At the serious risk of coming into contact with certain members (some of whom allegedly having been infected) I'm breaking my self imposed  isolation from Briskoda for this one post only to offer some of my views to help clarify the situation for  @Lady Elanore 

 

From what I've read you appear to be a one man band running your business via the entity of a ltd company.

 

Point 1:  You are not self employed, common mistake, you are employed by your company. I've no idea how universal credit works, but bear that in  mind.

 

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

 

Point 2: Vat to be deferred for one quarter. Even if VAT registered, this is a red herring as if you have no income, then you are not collecting VAT to give to HMRC. They are in fact deferring VAT you might have claimed back as well. So in fact, reducing help

 

Point 3: It's all up in the air until HMRC issues official guidance and I've noticed already many words and phrases are changing and will continue to change. As of now it's suggested your ltd company will have to a) make a claim and b) show its employee(s) have been laid off or, to use this horrible Americanism, furloughed as a direct result of this pandemic. In your case that should be fairly easy to show if your company had existing contracts (most would refer to them as jobs) confirmed and then cancelled due to the pandemic or because you had to self isolate. I think proof is almost certainly going to be required in the form of confirmation from your clients that this is true. It may also be necessary to prove the company has no other form of income i.e. your sic code ties up with your work, with the possibility of submitting evidence of past work invoiced and annual accounts which they can access directly.

 

Point 4: They have said they will pay up to 80% of employees salary or wages. Do not trust the words up to. Salary or wages is what your company pays through PAYE. It will be on your RTI record. HMRC will no doubt be very selective about how they work out your normal monthly salary, especially if you are paid infrequently, or if at all. You may have decided to retain money/profits in the company and pay out as dividends. Dividends will not be counted as salary or employee income. 

 

Point 5 This one I am quite unsure about, but as you are probably a Director of your Company i.e. an office holder, and a majority shareholder, this could possibly blur HMRC's view as to whether you are an employee or simply an office holder. Have you a written employment contract with your company? It's a very complex area, so I won't say any more.

 

Point 6: Nothing has been mentioned about Corporation tax. As this tax is paid up to 15 months iirc after your financial year end, expect them to stay silent on this until the next budget. No help here.

 

Point 7: I heard a rumour some time ago that some broadcast clients were considering paying a reduced fee for cancelled work. Not heard it recently though. Would be good if they did but it could also scupper the direct Govt help and just make things messy.

 

Point 8: Check using the HMRC online IR35 checker (it's anonymous) to see if your work lies within the scope of IR35 (wouldn't have thought so). If it does however then your clients may be responsible for sorting this all out. And deepest sympathy if that's the case.

 

As I mentioned it's all up in the air until HMRC have had their grubby paws on the legislation and converted into penny pinching overly complex guidance and rules and no doubt you will be receiving employer notices to that end very soon. RTI will be updated ready for tax reversal. I doubt they can do all that in less than 4 weeks.

 

I hope I've given you something to think about, and sincerely sorry if it makes you even more depressed.

 

I'm pretty sure that HMRC really hate people who pay themselves mainly through the dividend route even though it's perfectly legal, so expect them to kick people who do.

 

So now it time to bid adieu yet again. I'm going back into hiding before the mad men descend upon us and into isolation until the 4th horseman of the apocalypse has finished his visit.

 

Until then it's like Groundhog Day every day.

 

Good luck, chin up.

 

Bye

Edited 21 March, 2020 by xman

[Lady Elanore]

Unfortunate I am self employed and it is very very important that I keep that status. There is a world of pain involved if you don't have a 'Lorimer letter'. It's a common misconception that because I work through a ltd company that I am employed by the company. While I could be, it is not in my interest to do so and would probably cost me over 10% more tax as well as many other costs. 

 

I am not an irregular worker, which I believe is the term the government are using for the 80% payment sadly. My brother who spends most of his day looking into tax and claimant frauds, reckoned at the moment he too was convinced tax credits where my only option 

Edited 21 March, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[@Lee]

4 minutes ago, xman said:

At the serious risk of coming into contact with certain members (some of whom allegedly having been infected) I'm breaking my self imposed  isolation

Dude, we haven't seen eye-to-eye on the 'other' topic but don't be put off by 'them'. Block them and stay  

[Lady Elanore]

Trust me after 20 years of it, I'm constantly aware of IR35 and it's implications. This year coming up the onus of responsibility to check if I am genuinely self employed is also on the company employing my limited company, if they are considered to be a large or medium-sized business.

 

Appreciate the effort, but I'm on a few groups with other people in my industry and nobody has come up with an answer yet.  

Edited 21 March, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[Lady Elanore]

9 minutes ago, xman said:

At the serious risk of coming into contact with certain members (some of whom allegedly having been infected) I'm breaking my self imposed  isolation from Briskoda for this one post only to offer some of my views to help clarify the situation for  @Lady Elanore 

 

From what I've read you appear to be a one man band running your business via the entity of a ltd company.

 

Point 1:  You are not self employed, common mistake, you are employed by your company. I've no idea how universal credit works, but bear that in  mind.

 

 

 

I seem to have deleted a previous post. But to clarify. I am a self-employed person and not an employee of the company. I gain this because of the preponderance of many things. I work for different clients. Many jobs are of a short nature. I control profit and loss to some degree. I sometimes take my own equipment etc. The Lorimer letter is a bit of a holy grail in our industry 

Edited 21 March, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[Lady Elanore]

We have had one OB facility company announce that all staff are to be laid off immediately 😞 

[NJRJ]

5 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

The way ltd companies like myself operate, raising tax thresholds wouldn't really help, unless they were to give some Corporation tax back (most of it). The only personal tax we pay is Dividend tax at 7.5% of our Dividends. Corporation tax is 19% of the whole dividend. So if i was to take £1,000 out of the company, I'd put away an additional £190 for the corporation tax and then put £75 - from the £1,000 drawn - away for my dividend tax. So for every £1,000 in my pocket (after your allowance of just over £8600 a year) I put away £265 in to various accounts ready for tax demands. Dividend tax kicks in after the first £2,000 is taken and continues on all dividends after that. The game is not to hit personal high rate tax and not trigger NI employer payments.

 

Of course you have to also put some money aside for sick pay and holiday leave, neither of which I get as a right, so I have to fund it myself from the company. This is what I am living on now, but I can not sustain it for the next 10 months or longer. This is the bit that people often forget when they think we are raking it in and cheating the government 😞 

 

Except you haven't put it aside it seems, so you have cheated the government? I might be reading it wrong

[Lady Elanore]

1 hour ago, NJRJ said:

Except you haven't put it aside it seems, so you have cheated the government? I might be reading it wrong

 

 

Yes you are reading it wrong. As I said it's what I am living on now. But until major events are back on telly I don't have any work, which is probably at least 6 months away. I then have a 2 month wait almost, for payment. So I am looking at best case scenario as I type of 8 months with no income at all. I don't count Universal credit, as it's nothing like a living amount if you have a home and creditors, as well as money to help your family (parents, one of which is in a home).

 

As for my tax set up, if that what you think I am cheating the government out of, I don't really want to go into great detail about my companies affairs and how I run my business (all 100% legal though), but I have a reserve account that I move money into for things like tax. It's a good idea to separate your money from just one account just to be safe. People new to it all can forget that some of the money in their business account is not ultimately  theirs and keep spending, then at the end of the year they have nothing left to pay the taxes due

Edited 21 March, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[xman]

7 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

The way ltd companies like myself operate, raising tax thresholds wouldn't really help, unless they were to give some Corporation tax back (most of it). The only personal tax we pay is Dividend tax at 7.5% of our Dividends. Corporation tax is 19% of the whole dividend. So if i was to take £1,000 out of the company, I'd put away an additional £190 for the corporation tax and then put £75 - from the £1,000 drawn - away for my dividend tax. So for every £1,000 in my pocket (after your allowance of just over £8600 a year) I put away £265 in to various accounts ready for tax demands. Dividend tax kicks in after the first £2,000 is taken and continues on all dividends after that.

 

 

Ok, this will definitely be my last post here @Lady Elanore

 

Regarding limited companies and tax

 

Apologies if you think I being pedantic or rude or l'm teaching my Grandma to suck eggs...

 

And forgive me for saying this but maybe you should be looking for a better accountant.

 

From your above statement, you do not seem to have a good understanding of Corporation Tax. Corporation tax becomes due when your annual accounts are filed and the amount due is calculated on the total profit declared in those accounts after allowed eligible deductions.

 

There are requirements to be met before a dividend can be declared and paid. Dividends are not an eligible business expense.

 

https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company/taking-money-out-of-a-limited-company

 

There is no Corporation Tax on dividends. You will still pay the full Corporation tax if you pay no dividends.

 

If you take money out without the required profit available, you can do this as a Director's loan, but iirc there is a limit of £10,000 overdrawn at any time otherwise it becomes subject to additional tax. It also must be repaid within a certain timeframe to avoid additional tax, both you and your company.

 

https://www.gov.uk/directors-loans

 

From April most medium/large companies will use

HMRC’s Check Employment Status Tool (CEST) to satisfy HMRC requirements regarding your IR35 subcontractor status (Ltd company or otherwise)

 

https://medium.com/@wegotpop/ir35-for-production-companies-tax-legislation-impacting-your-most-senior-crew-7c49d17c8267

 

A good qualified accountant, preferably chartered, is definitely recommended to avoid a very costly visit from the tax inspector.

 

For others reading this babble and trying to understand what I am saying, it's important to note that a financial year end is not the same as a tax year end. They are often/usually different dates.

 

Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

 

I off back into isolation and locking the door. Bye

 

[Lady Elanore]

I tried to simplify my apportioning of moneys taken out and tax portion being safeguarded. I am a skills based person and apart from my expenses and occasional purchase of equipment, I live mainly off my Dividends (the most tax efficient way for people in my position to take money legally from their business). At the end of the year I aim to make my profit in the business very low and take out everything as a dividend, except the £8.6k that I take and yet keeps me below the threshold for NI and the first £2k of 'dividend allowance'. Naturally I use a charted accountants firm (a long established and sizable one) . My tax year-end and financial year-end are the same as you are allowed to move your financial year-end once to accommodate this if you want. It simplifies things for everyone if you do, well it did for me. 

 

By taking out most of my money as a dividend and leaving very little still in the business, I can keep on top of my Corp tax by following the simple system of transferring 20% to a reserve account (the actual figure I use for safety, I just didn't want to mention as some smart ar$e would tell me corp tax wasn't 20% etc) when I take a dividend, the extra 1 % will cover any extra money due. The 7.5% dividend tax is just an unfortunate thing that the government threw at us and amounted to a noticeable hike in money owed. I expect it to go to 10% in the wake fo this financial crisis. 

[J.R.]

I am in a similar situation, an accomodation provider in France, the Airbus factory opposite closed so the one remaining long term tenant gone & wont be paying rent from the end of the month but I cannot evict not that i want to.

 

No contract workers, no visiting reps etc, no tourists, country on a lockdon so there will be no income for a minimum of 4 months, I still have to pay all the property taxes and utility bills plus monthly payments towards this years income tax & social charges based on the turnover from 2 years ago, last year was 35% down & this year will likely be 100% down so there will be nothing to pay except I must still continue to pay the estimated amount.

 

Basically there is about €1300 a month going out and nothing coming in before I even buy food for myself, luckily I own the place so no rent to pay and the electric etc is all included in the outgoings above.

 

Car is now up on blocks so no diesel to pay, I should now be selling the previous car but there would be no buyers during a lockdown and I will not be able to return to the UK to collect it or be allowed to return to France without quarantine for probably 4 months but still have to insure both cars even if off the road, actually the drop in the ocean that really pees me off is the gym taking €30 per month membership when it has closed & locked its doors & laid off all the staff, also 25% of La Poste workers exercising their "right" not to work = why should I when I can stay at home on full pay like everyone else and leave my colleagues to do my job for me.

 

What has made it worse  and nothing to do with Coronavirus is just sh1tty timing, I voluntarily shut down at the end of October to return to the UK to renovate my rental house that was destroyed by the last tenant, no income from that since April 2019, then a private eye operation in the UK costing £4K which was supposedly imperative to save the sight of one eye left me blind in it, I was sure the retina was detached (the 5th time) but it was denied, turned out to be so and had a vitrectomy in France and not allowed to work after, arrived back in France determined to open and try and get some money in just in time for the total lockdown.

 

Oh and I also have £400 a month of council tax & utility bills to pay in the UK which if the house was tenanted would not be my liability, no way would I want t rent it even if I were able to travel because there is a ban on evictions and I imagine the only people looking to move at the moment have something to hide.

 

So for me it will probably be 8 months minimum of no income and heavy outgoings and that is on the back of 2bad years where turnover dropped by 40%, as in the UK there will be no support, its only for employees. Thankfully I have savings but cannot count on selling the small shareholding that I have had for over 20 years because that has also dropped 60% in the last month alone.

 

Interesting times ahead.

Edited 22 March, 2020 by J.R.

[Lady Elanore]

2 minutes ago, J.R. said:

I am in a similar situation, an accomodation provider in France, the Airbus factory opposite closed so the one remaining long term tenant gone & wont be paying rent from the end of the month but I cannot evict not that i want to.

 

No contract workers, no visiting reps etc, no tourists, country on a lockdon so there will be no income for a minimum of 4 months, I still have to pay all the property taxes and utility bills plus monthly payments towards this years income tax & social charges based on the turnover from 2 years ago, last year was 35% down & this year will likely be 100% down so there will be nothing to pay except I must still continue to pay the estimated amount.

 

Basically there is about €1300 a month going out and nothing coming in before I even buy food for myself, luckily I own the place so no rent to pay and the electric etc is all included in the outgoings above.

 

Car is now up on blocks so no diesel to pay, I should now be selling the previous car but there are no buyers and I will not be able to return to the UK or be allowed to return to France ithout quarantine for probably 4 months but still have to insure both cars even if off the road, actually the drop in the ocean that really pees me off is the gym taking €30 per month membership when it has closed & locked its doors & laid off all the staff, also 25% of La Poste workers exercising their "right" not to work = why should I when I can stay at home on full pay like everyone else and leave my colleagues to do my job for me.

 

What has made it worse  and nothing to do with Coronavirus is just sh1tty timing, I voluntarily shut down at the end of October to return to the UK to renovate my rental house that was destroyed by the last tenant, no income from that since April 2019, then a private eye operation in the UK costing £4K which was supposedly imperative to save the sight of one eye left me blind in it, I was sure the retina was detached (the 5th time) but it was denied, turned out to be so and had a vitrectomy in France and not allowed to work after, arrived back in France determined to open and try and get some money in just in time for the total lockdown.

 

Oh and I also have £400 a month of council tax & utility bills to pay in the UK which if the house was tenanted would not be my liability, no way would I want t rent it even if I were able to travel because there is a ban on evictions and I imagine the only people looking to move at the moment have something to hide.

 

So for me it will probably be 7 months minimum of no income and heavy outgoings, like the UK there will be no support, its only for employees. Thankfully I have savings but cannot count on selling the small shareholding that I have had for over 20 years because that has also dropped 60% in the last month alone.

 

Interesting times ahead.

Thats a tough gig!! Is the UK government doing more for its citizens in general than the French government would you say 

[J.R.]

I dont know I really dont follow it, I would say for employees yes because they have always had way too much protection and benefits, an employer is seen as an exploiter, an enemy of the people and the self employed viewed much the same way.

 

There is no support for the self employed even in normal times just the same as the UK.

[lol-lol]

4 hours ago, xman said:

 

Ok, this will definitely be my last post here @Lady Elanore

 

Regarding limited companies and tax

 

Apologies if you think I being pedantic or rude or l'm teaching my Grandma to suck eggs...

 

And forgive me for saying this but maybe you should be looking for a better accountant.

 

From your above statement, you do not seem to have a good understanding of Corporation Tax. Corporation tax becomes due when your annual accounts are filed and the amount due is calculated on the total profit declared in those accounts after allowed eligible deductions.

 

There are requirements to be met before a dividend can be declared and paid. Dividends are not an eligible business expense.

 

https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company/taking-money-out-of-a-limited-company

 

There is no Corporation Tax on dividends. You will still pay the full Corporation tax if you pay no dividends.

 

If you take money out without the required profit available, you can do this as a Director's loan, but iirc there is a limit of £10,000 overdrawn at any time otherwise it becomes subject to additional tax. It also must be repaid within a certain timeframe to avoid additional tax, both you and your company.

 

https://www.gov.uk/directors-loans

 

From April most medium/large companies will use

HMRC’s Check Employment Status Tool (CEST) to satisfy HMRC requirements regarding your IR35 subcontractor status (Ltd company or otherwise)

 

https://medium.com/@wegotpop/ir35-for-production-companies-tax-legislation-impacting-your-most-senior-crew-7c49d17c8267

 

A good qualified accountant, preferably chartered, is definitely recommended to avoid a very costly visit from the tax inspector.

 

For others reading this babble and trying to understand what I am saying, it's important to note that a financial year end is not the same as a tax year end. They are often/usually different dates.

 

Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

 

I off back into isolation and locking the door. Bye

 

 

 

HMRC see Dividends and IR35 as tax loop holes and are reducing their effective as tax avoidance measures.  That said they actually saw they would be shooting themselves in the foot changing not with Covid 19 effects so have delayed the IR35 changes for a year. 

 

https://www.accountancydaily.co/lords-suspect-ir35-manipulation

 

Direct taxation is not my field, I am ex-HMRC and pwc as is my Brother and he is the Direct tax specialist and we discussed the Budget and the Emergency measures and we both completely skeptical about the substance and motives of the UK government in its actions effectiveness and motives.

 

Their mealy mouth words do not match the substance when one drills down to the written details.  

 

 

 

https://www.accountancydaily.co/lords-suspect-ir35-manipulation 

 

Edited 22 March, 2020 by lol-lol

[Lady Elanore]

Many years ago the government in its wisdom encouraged people to become self-employed and to do so through Ltd companies. Then they decided it was not so advantageous and tried to screw down on it all. I think this latest C19 episode shows that perhaps they had a better deal than they realised. IR35 is a pain in the ar$e these days and to make matters worse the biggest supplier of work in the industry insists that any freelancer they use has to be ltd not Sole trader. Everyone else works the other way around (the sensible way really if you want to avoid IR35 issues). 

 

btw I don't think that HMRC see Dividends as loop holes as the current government seems happy that many of the big earners can capitalise on them (not saying that anyone in the current government would ever do such a heinous thing of course   )

Edited 22 March, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[Ootohere]

@Lady Elanore

How you do it is how many offshore workers in the Oil & Gas industry do their tax affairs.

They are not employed PAYE, but are a Limited Company and work as a Contractor.

They are 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off and invoice the company they are doing work for each month.

(3 weeks not on the Rig and they can work for them selves or take on contracts.)

 

They are paying for their own medicals, training / coarses, and certificates and personal equipment. Able to claim tax relief on. They pay low NI.

George Osborne made this not such a good way to do things and some were forced back to being Employees on PAYE.

This April this change from being a Contractor to becoming an Employee was really being forced on to many that were contractors.

Some were folding their companies but have now knocked this on the head due to the current situation.

 

Offshore workers that will not be getting to go to work offshore and are not employees are in some cases in the lucky position that there might be jobs on shore they can do. Just they can not travel abroad to do them.  There are still ones that live abroad when not on rigs for tax purposes that are flying in to the UK to then go to the North Sea.

Edited 22 March, 2020 by Roottootemblowinootsoot

[lol-lol]

10 minutes ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

@Lady Elanore

How you do it is how many offshore workers in the Oil & Gas industry do their tax affairs.

They are not employed PAYE, but are a Limited Company and work as a Contractor.

They are 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off and invoice the company they are doing work for each month.

(3 weeks not on the Rig and they can work for them selves or take on contracts.)

 

They are paying for their own medicals, training / coarses, and certificates and personal equipment. Able to claim tax relief on. They pay low NI.

George Osborne made this not such a good way to do things and some were forced back to being Employees on PAYE.

This April this change from being a Contractor to becoming an Employee was really being forced on to many that were contractors.

Some were folding their companies but have now knocked this on the head due to the current situation.

 

Offshore workers that will not be getting to go to work offshore and are not employees are in some cases in the lucky position that there might be jobs on shore they can do. Just they can not travel abroad to do them.  There are still ones that live abroad when not on rigs for tax purposes that are flying in to the UK to then go to the North Sea.

 

North Sea oil production to throttle back as off shore oil is not economic at $25 a barrel.

Grangemouth and other refineries also throttling back.   

We will see if Russia or Saudi blink first.

 

Sign of the Covid 19 times and effecting tax receipts on many levels.

 

Whole of society needs to adapt to working in isolation as far as possible until the vaccine is ready and government waive most taxes until then and facilitate flexible working.

[Ootohere]

There are still essential workers required on offshore facilities and some of these arrive into the UK from around the world and that is not just oil and gas rigs but offshore wind farm maintenance.

The oil does not get turned off from coming ashore it needs to flow in the pipelines. Production can be reduced and exploration stopped but rigs still need staff even if reduced in numbers.

There are those on the Safety and Support / supply ships (boats), then there is the British Fishing Fleet going to sea.

Edited 22 March, 2020 by Roottootemblowinootsoot