31^st January is a taxing time for many people, with the deadline for filing returns for April 2009-2010.

But there are other tax “returns” that can be even more unwelcome.  If tax has not been deducted properly from payments you make to people working for you, the taxman can recover back tax (with interest and penalties) from you - it’s not just up to the worker.  And if you’ve had a situation running for a number of years, the numbers can get huge.

Many people think that they should hire people as self-employed, rather than as employees.   If they do this, they think they don’t have to worry about employment law, the tax is up to the worker, and if things don’t work out you can stop easily and without risk.

As with so many things that “everybody knows”, these statements are only true in very specific circumstances.  Often the statement turns out to be wrong in the particular case, and you wind up with a horrible bill for something that you thought could not happen.  And not a lot of people know that there are some real legal advantages for you if your worker being an employee rather than a contractor.

Of course, it’s also true that there are advantages for you if people are self-employed.  The point is - it’s not a “one size fits all”.  You want to make sure that when you take people on to work for you, you do it in the way that gives you the best mix of rights, the maximum flexibility, and the least risk if problems do crop up.

Which is best for you ... self-employed freelancer, or employee?  Come to our short seminar on 2^nd March, and get specialist input from Christopher Head on how to decide what’s best for you and your situation.

Course details and how to book

Christopher Head qualified as a barrister, and is retained by Fashion Enter as a specialist adviser.  Christopher is running a series of seminars on the legal side of paying people to work for you.

www.irenicon.co.uk