AIBU to not be an cash point for my boss?

[kardashianklone]

New job (in the UK). Boss not a UK national and is paid into non UK account in home currency. Boss flat out refuses to open UK bank account. Boss claims they cannot take out money from AMT using their home bank account card an Amex (which I think is not true- more likely boss doesn't want to pay transaction fees). Boss wants to PayPal me the money and for me to take out cash from my account for every transaction. This includes small things like lunches and coffees from Pret and big things like their council tax, water rates bill, electricity bill etc. So we are talking easily over a grand quite quickly. Things like household bills are very hard to pay if you don't have a UK bank account or UK registered credit or debit card and you usually have to make international wire transfers (which incur a fee) and they also don't accept Amex which is what boss have. Even buying train tickets on line is a nightmare. I think that 1. It is somewhat unethical of boss to ask me but I can't put my finger on why exactly and 2. what if I ever got audited and hmrc wants to know what this random influx of money that is not from employment is? Boss has asked me twice to do this. I have said clearly "no I don't want to do it, I feel uncomfortable ". Boss ignored me and said "it would really help me out and other people have done it for me" and did sad face and kept the pressure up. AIBU unreasonable and help me articulate why please!

Some of these comments don't make much sense to me.

Unless she is a self employed contractor (and therefore responsible for doing a tax return and paying her own tax) then the tax will come off her wage before she gets it.

It makes no different what country tour money is banked in because the company only pay you what is yours after tax has been taken off. So she's not avoiding tax at all.

If she's a contractor and required to fill out a tax return, then maybe she's hiding something but it seems like she's a boss in the company and on an employed salary. So her tax will be laid before she gets the money in her bank.

I think avasarala has a good point - the only way she’s not paid by PAYE is if your boss is complicit. Is she permanently based in the U.K.?

*your company is complicit

Just say no, no, no.

Spend time today documenting who said what & when so far, & update every day with your notes cc any emails home.

You are being pressured into breaking the law.

Report to HR director, first verbally in a meeting (record this on yr smartphone/discreet device as a record to inform your written notes) & then follow through with an email detailing to meeting attendees what was discussed & any actions agreed, cc to yr home email. In a union ?, take yr rep in with you & cc them in on everything. Not in a union, take a friend into mtg with you.

I strongly suggest you contact ACAS helpline for advice about this before you approach HR bods, so that you can frame yr approach in such a way to get the response you require. As a ‘whistleblower’, you need to do this by the book to ensure your employment rights.

Foremost, you must protect yourself by using procedures in place, building an audit trail to show that you have acted reasonably & proportionally.

If you prefer a more direct method, then contact HRMC helpline to report her, but be prepared for some flak in your workplace as the disclosure trail will likely lead back to you.

Sos, missed where you said you have HR meeting booked. Still suggest you discuss with ACAS to find out where you stand before you go into meeting.

Dodgy! I would also report to HMRC. Why should we all pay tax when someone like this is clearly trying to dodge it at the expense of others, while making THEM look dodgy. What a CF!

@avarasala - I would be concerned that the 'employer' whether through ignorance or design has conspired with the boss to 'pay' overseas, not via PAYE, in order to avoid tax and also complying with UK employment rules.

Nothing would surprise me with regard to businesses themselves behaving wrongly!

@topcat2014

My dad is British. Worked abroad most of his working life so had bank accounts in the respective countries. When he had to go on secondment (spelling?) And work in the UK for a year, he was paid by the UK company into an overseas account. But he was on PAYE and tax was taken off before he got the money.

This is just the usual mumsnet hysteria of "everything is a conspiracy, everyone is lieing".

I can understand not wanting to open a UK account if she's planning on not staying here for too long as she'd have to send all the money home and that would incur more fees.

Regarding previous comments as to whether the company is complicit, and based on info op has given, it's my guess the company has outsourced boss's tax advice to one of the big 4 who have advised boss to claim the OWR exemption and boss has "overplayed" it. It's perfectly legal for the company to pay proportion of boss's remuneration offshore that relates to proportion of workdays incurred offshore in UK tax year, should boss be eligible under OWR legislation (which is time limited). HMRC rules and documentation requirements are incredibly strict now and the relief is offset by removal of other reliefs (savings, div, CGT allowances etc). It serves a very valid purpose for high earning specialists who work abroad a lot and may also be taxed abroad, and so for companies who need to recruit those individuals.

I'm guessing (just guessing) the issue here is that boss cannot remit the remuneration which has been paid tax free offshore back to UK without liability to UK tax at marginal rate (and that includes repayment of UK debts incurred by her during same tax year)...yet has chosen op to enable her to do this.

...which would make boss a tax avoider and op a money launderer. OPif you have done this already I think you definitely need to report to your company's code of conduct office (or similar) and I also think you might want to preemptively ask them to provide you with legal advice in case you get caught up in this based on your previous unknowing cooperation with this. And I'm not overreacting.

Thanks for clarifying screenqueen - not my area as you can probably tell!

NO NO NO ! this sounds very dodgy ,

At best he is just a incompitant fool , or as others have said £ laundering , tax evasion , drug dealing .
If he does some thing wrong even something like parking fine / speeding it will have your name on it if you have to pay the fine , would you really be happy with that ?

Why can he not open his own bank account ?
Why can he not set up Paypal ?
If you Pay his council tax electric etc It may look like you have a second home that could cause all sorts of insurance problems ( he makes a claim it would affect you ) .

dont do it and find a new job too !

Angie169 She not he.

It's not hysteria. There are very complex tax laws which certain very high international earners can take advantage of to minimise their exposure to UK tax. If the boss is 2nd I/c in a global brand her contract will have been drawn up in order for her to be able to take advantage of these rules. There's nothing illegal about this - probably most extremely high earners do it. Not everyone is paid via paye, particularly at high levels.

The problem comes when overseas earnings are remitted to the uk they can create a uk tax liability. It seems that the boss is trying to remit her money here via someone else's legitimate uk account so she can still claim her money hasn't been brought here and therefore evade the tax. This is illegal and it is money laundering.

Not hysteria, but an extremely wealthy individual cynically trying to make a junior member of staff her mule and implicating her in crime in the process. I'm an accountant, I'm not just sitting here making things up.

Don't do It! He sounds dodgy! Even if it's not dodgy, he would be creating alot of work for you just because he can't be bothered to open a UK bank account.

@avasarala,

You are correct in that, payment to an overseas account does not of itself automatically suggest any tax evasion.

However, when combined with the somewhat bizarre requests from the boss behaviour begins to look odd.

He could just ask the payroll dept to pay part of his net pay in cash to him and the rest transferred to his overseas account. Is easy enough to do.

Pigpigpig "This post is interesting because everyone has jumped to the conclusion the boss is a he." and they still are! It just goes to show how few people bother to read all the OP's posts in a thread.

Exactly Insomniac

People: He is a she

It just goes to show how few people bother to read all the OP's posts in a thread.

Meh. There's a she who is actually a he on another current thread, and in this case everyone did the read the thread.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zmvcp
There was a similar -ish thing discussed yesterday on radio 4 money box programme where teenagers are used in similar ways to what boss is asking OP to do

@fretfulparent - yes, I heard it too, and referred upthread. Just goes to show how easy it is to unwittingly (or naively) walk into problems without fully understanding.

Hope the OP comes out ok.

I had the meeting with HR who agreed that boss shouldn't be asking me to do those things and I should say no. HR did not offer to intervene; I asked them to and they say no but said they would get someone else to speak to boss about alternatives for getting cash. Shortly after, boss arrived and the first thing they asked me was if they could PayPal money. I said no clearly and firmly and shut it down. Explained that it could affect my credit rating and mortgage applications and HMRC would take a dim view . Then had to explain to boss what HMRC was. I suggested the Revolut card which Boss meekly agreed to and registered for. So I guess problem solved, for now. I haven't accepted any money via PayPal previously and will not.

What a great update. Well done for standing up to your boss.

Well done Op as I'm sure that was hard.