UK Chancellor's Autumn Statement; end of self employed pilots??

[sky9]

The Autumn Statement got lost as it was overtaken by International news however this might be of interest to Pilots working with employment agencies.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/263942/35062_Autumn_Statement_2013.pdf

Page 73.
1.306 As the next step, Autumn Statement 2013 announces action to prevent
employers and employment intermediaries from avoiding employer NICs and
circumventing their employer obligations. The government strongly supports enterprise
and those who choose to work for themselves, and believes that the tax system should continue
to recognise the additional risk someone who is genuinely self-employed takes on. But the
government is acting now to level the playing field so that companies cannot use employment
intermediaries to disguise employment as self-employment and thus avoid employment
taxes and deny employment rights to their workforce. The government will legislate to
prevent employment intermediaries from being able to use contrived contracts to 74 Autumn Statement 2013
disguise the employment of workers. This will take effect from April 2014 and raise around £400 million each year.

[cavortingcheetah]

The plan is a central plank of the 2013 statement and you'll find it on page 9 together with additional powers the government is proposing to award itself to counter the inevitable attempted abuse.

[captplaystation]

I can see a certain loco having to cover its substantial flying programme in STN with "non-based pilots", or should I say "independant service providers" sourced from another "base" , or even "non-base" (MRS)

This may well have an impact on certain companies, but you can be sure that much of the impact will be on what used to be known as "Contractors", who 7 or 8 years ago chose to give up their permanent employment to become Brookies, & only saw as far as the big bag of money with nary a glance into the future to see the legacy they were bestowing upon themselves & the next generation courtesy of their short term greed, as contracting became the only show in town, & permanent contracts were no longer even on offer.

Well, the clever guys stashed away a LOT of Bucks, & the ones after them have to go to bed at night waiting for a knock on the door.

Sad seedy little industry that aviation has become :yuk:, I guess it will all be sorted over the next few years.

[Superpilot]

BBC News - Zero-hours contracts: Cable rules out complete ban (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25442506)

Business Secretary Vince Cable has ruled out a complete ban on zero-hours contracts, saying they offered employers "welcome flexibility".

Launching a consultation on their use, Mr Cable said the contracts had a place in the labour market even though there had been evidence of abuse of rights.

Companies could be barred from having "exclusivity contracts" that stop people working for another firm.

Zero-hours contracts do not guarantee regular work for employees.

The consultation will last 12 weeks.

Business leaders welcomed the move not to ban zero-hours contracts but union bosses said the government was "desperately short on solutions" to restrict their use....

[MaxReheat]

Then let's see Mr Cable take the lead and put all MPs and ministers on zero hour contracts (it would save the UK taxpayer a fortune) and see how he and they would get on without an assured income stream, pension provision etc.

[captplaystation]

Amazing what "lobbying" or "handshakes" can bring in terms of an alleviation of most of the provisions of much needed legislation.

Why am I not evenly remotely surprised.

[sky9]

The issue as far as the Treasury is concerned is contractors who only work for one company. That is considered tax avoidance and is about to be changed.

[Skyjob]

Simple solution to providers out there: start providing something else to someone else!

Do not just offer you flying skills to company A.
Also offer your DIY skills to your neighbour, case washing skills to your wife, you get the drift...
Create another form of income and you are not solely providing to just one company, thus can continue as you are.

[Longhitter]

Yeah, just make sure you properly invoice your other services to the clients involved, declare the income to HMRC, pay tax & VAT on it, properly register your other business activities and have your administration in order... Simples!

The net is closing around the self-employed-but-working-for-one-client-only-construction, mostly for the social security contributions dodged by both parties involved. In Italy, France, Norway, Belgium and Germany there is increasing pressure on Ryanair to properly employ people. Question of time, I think.

[Superpilot]

Can anyone advise if the pimping organisations that front EZ or RYR contractually demand their pilots do not work anywhere else during the terms of their assignments? I would be very surprised if they did. They get away with it by forcing pilots to think about the 900 hour rule. Am I correct?

[Globally Challenged]

I'm fairly certain that the clause does exist, and that 900 hrs is the exception rather than the rule these days.

[McBruce]

You are not allowed to operate/instruct for anyone else without the permission of the contractor, i.e. Ryanair.

Not exactly a trade in which we can easily find some locum work anyway. An odd delivery flight every so often if you are lucky to know people. Instructors on the other hand maybe able to find additional work... but they're all flat out training cadets!

In fairness my contract was written in a time when everyone was doing close to 900 hours and is merely to prevent headaches arising from FTLs.

[Superpilot]

The trend nowadays is to stand down guys for up to 6 months at a time. A zero hours contract which stipulates a requirement for a contractor to get approval for conducting other work in writing first (a request which is likely to be denied or get you sacked anyway) would be against the spirit of this new legislation they are thinking about.

[bob777]

From the industrial revolution and on Britain has been the prominent engine behind all forms of exploitation along with their future friends slave traders from the Gulf. Barbars mutated in to tea drinking lords with their pathetic monarchy, there must be a reason why Adrian built a wall just North of London. And now we see that he made a mistake to think those boar hunting savage constituted no threat.All present time tax scams are related in Ireland. I vote for UK and Ireland out of the EU

[Alexander de Meerkat]

bob777 - what a lot of absolute revisionist drivel. There is not a single nation I am aware of around the industrial revolution that can stand proud in regards to exploitation. However, I would draw your attention to such places as the Cadbury factory in Bournville, Birmingham. Dare I say it, this was an example of Britain at its finest. Then of course there was the life's work of Lord Shaftesbury to destroy the slave trade. Another Great Brit. Incidentally, I was born and brought up north of Hadrian's Wall and, along with the majority of Brits, am 100% for the monarchy. Have a look at that mate - Confidence in British monarchy at all-time high, poll shows - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/10206708/Confidence-in-British-monarchy-at-all-time-high-poll-shows.html). Read it and weep! I am not sure if you are a jealous Yank or a messed-up Brit, but you are completely wrong on your history. You weren't brought up by Ed Milliband's Dad were you?

Anyway onto the discussion in hand. Sadly, HMRC have yet to bring a single prosecution that I'm aware of in regards to this issue. It is all very well some spokesman seeing they will not tolerate it, but they actually have to something to prevent it. We could start with Ryanair and work out from here. It is clearly a massive abuse of the taxation system that is totally ignored. Clearly if a pilot works exclusively for an airline he is a de-facto employee. It is not rocket science, but no attempt has made to tackle this issue.

[pudoc]

Does this even affect RYR? Surely they, and their contractors fall under Irish law? Or would UK based contractors be affected despite them being Irish companies?

[lifeafteraviation]

Alexander de Meerkat... Your response to bob777 was warranted and spot on.

But this is a troll. This is his second such post in two months. Your response contained more words than his entire contribution to this forum to date. The first post was in Italian and of similar nonsense. Best to ignore him. This is probably not even an actual pilot.

I find this to be an interesting development in the UK and as quickly as the Government is able to pass regulation opportunists will discover ways to exploit it. The end result is always based on the true motivations of the politicians rather than the words they speak. Time will surely tell.

[Al Murdoch]

Pudoc - Ryanair contracts it's pilots through Brookfield Aviation, a UK registered company.