Is this legal?

[surelynot16]

Sorry NC
So my partner has worked for a self employed man for around 4/5 years but has only been on his books as part time since April 2019
He's on his books as 16 hours pw however he works around 70/80 hr pw
He's works mon-fri 8am ish - 5/6pm ish
Nearly every Saturday & a few sundays.
He doesn't give him any holidays, takes a huff with him if he has a sick day & if he does take a week off the £147 that goes in his account for the ( 16hrs ) he's down for he makes him give him back.
Surely non of this is legal? I'm not convinced he's even down as 16 hours legally as he would still be entitled to holiday pay & sick pay. Something about this is all wrong. Anyone know the right way to tackle this please? TIA

He can log in to his personal tax account and he will see there if his employer has declared anything.

If he hasn't - HMRC could ask him for the tax if they can't recover it from the employee. He needs advice on the employment situation (from ACAS) and some tax advice to get his position corrected. Also, if he hasn't been paying NI (or if he hasn't been credited with NI credits) he will have huge gaps in his state pension and if he needed to claim certain benefits he wouldn't be able to.

Op does he want you doing this for him? He is likely to be fired or loose much of his income Ie down to the 16 hours only and in addition he is going to be prosecuted by hmrc.

As said, not one person will ever believe he didn’t know he should be paying tax.

Also I’d check how fraudulent is your partner before you do anything. Has he been claiming benefits based on the 16 hours for example. I. Guessing he doesn’t bank the money so he’s not caught. So how is he paying his bills etc?

Is he getting the right amount of money for the cash in hand stuff? He might not be getting minimum wage either.

1. Tax evasion (this arrangement) is a criminal offence.

1. HMRC can go after an employee for unpaid tax/NIC where the employer failed to operate PAYE in some cases. Posters adamantly asserting that can never happen are incorrect.

1. If he has been paid in cash, the amount he receives would be treated as net of tax, so his liability would be on the higher grossed up amount. The figures people are mooting as his untaxed income are thousands of pounds too low and therefore the unpaid liabilities much higher too.

1. It is irrelevant how many hours he is "on the books" for (whatever people mean by that), the full amount of earnings is taxable and NICable (employers report earnings to HMRC, not hours). Overtime pay is not exempt from tax or NIC!

1. If you agree to commit a criminal offence (tax evasion) with somebody, it is unlikely to go well for you if you then try to report that person for treating you unfairly whilst engaged in that offence.

1. I kind of have to agree with Bluntness. Who knows what's really going on here, but it's clearly a very different picture than that painted in the first post and I sincerely doubt he has any interest in asking for holiday entitlements or minimum wage.

1. You may wish to Google something called "HMRC Connect". HMRC have vast amounts of data to connect the dots on such questions as "how is he financing his lifestyle on £147 pw?" .

I think your partner might fall under the second part of this. I think its clear he knew his boss wasn't paying his contributions as he was receiving money cash in hand and not through the bank.

"If the employer has not deducted the correct amount of tax under PAYE, HMRC can collect the underpayment from the employee in one of two circumstances:

1. the employer satisfies HMRC that it took reasonable care in applying the PAYE provisions and that the error was made in good faith, or

1. HMRC considers that the employee has received payments knowing that the employer wilfully failed to deduct the correct amount"

Op, you call this man your partner. Is he really your boyfriend? Do you even live together? How long have you been with him?