Avoiding Social Security payments.
 

Germany trafficking: Mass police raid on Berlin mega-brothel - BBC News

"Prosecutors allege that staff at Artemis were forced to pretend to be self-employed to avoid the payments".

Can anyone think of similar circumstances in our industry?

Funny, I was thinking exactly the same when I posted the article on Facebook. Seems the German Govt has realised that it needs more loot to pay for all those "migrants" it has welcomed with such open arms.

Even the oldest profession is not out of their reach, so , what chance for simple airframe drivers ?

I listened to Mr. J Corbyn expanding the benefits that EU membership has brought to UK workers. One aspect mentioned was the employment protection & rights now granted to agency workers. Could that be why certain airlines have insisted that pilots set up Ltd. self-employed organisations so that the 'agency' is not liable for those workers' protection & rights? Cynical? Damn right.

Well - nearly everyone in the industry is using some contracts like that if you are nowadays still stupid enough to go for it. Especially the UK and Ireland are still encouraging this kind of system hence you are working for only one company, so you are actually an employee(no arguing about that - if you work for ONE employer then you are an employee).

My old outfit, one of the so called(by themself) market leader in biz aviation is offering this kind of fraud contracts as well. It will need a big effort by union and local authorities to stop this mass fraud. It is as simple as that.

@Rat: Not the union is encouraging that, it is the countries by themself. In mainland Europe it is not possible to do this kind of setup because the authorities would not accept your explaination. So I think the UK is responsible for that by having the wrong laws. Not the EU. But soon that will be over, you will be free again and everything will be perfect. Cynical? Damn right as well. Bye bye.

I don't think that you are selfemployed with NAS . Dunno how it's done at Wizz. I think there is a significant difference between the RYR model where you set up a limited company in Eire and NAS model where you are employed by a OSM. Still, best would be to have a direct contract to the airline itself.

Syntax - but this are all deals that are very close to the border between "black and white", wouldn't you agree. Just because they are doing it right now does not mean it would hold in front of a high court once it comes to that.

There are deals out there, but if you go for something like that you must be aware that it is not anymore the 80's or 90's where it was so easy to earn money tax free.
Nowadays you are with one foot in the jail if doing that. That's what I ment and that's how it is.
Just think of Germany and Austria, even Italy searching and buying stolen data to track down tax refugees.
And having a limited company and being an employee is just an other type of fraud which will expire soon. Really someone disagrees on this facts? Europe needs money, guess what's the easiest way to get some.

Sorry tomuchwork. Can you tell me one UK airline that is employing pilots on a self employed basis please. RYR are Eire.

Big 5 EU finance ministers are meeting to make laws for companies to open up their true tax status to ensure all correct taxes are paid and no 'under the radar' constructions are in use. Surely that spotlight would apply to non-payment of employer premiums e.g. social security, pension, social insurance payments as much as tax. It would appear that their attention should also be paid to any Ltd company so-called self-employed construction whereby employer payments are avoided.
This was done inside the UK civil service whereby it was found that some senior mandarins and made such a construction, but with only HMG as their customer. It was deemed illegal, a tax avoidance scheme, and stopped. What's the difference?

In the UK you need a National Insurance Number to work, either employed or self employed just different levels of contribution. This tax just allows access to the basic services, healthcare etc.. it is NOT THE SAME AS INCOME TAX ON SALARY...doesn't matter whom you work for, what sort of scheme, you need the NI number. I know of no airlines where staff don't have NI Numbers...The "oldest profession" is a different matter, these " workers" probably don't even " exist" in the records, cam in strapped to a pallet or cargo ;)

Ryanair has been and still is using UK based agencies to setup their very questionable pay-per-hour ltd's that place pilots predominantly in continental Europe where they live and work under a totally borderline tax&social status.

These setups are poisoning and distorting the market causing great damage mainly to the airlines that have to compete with such medieval employment methods.

The main victims are of course the more local and less cash-rich airlines of sounthern Europe where in less than a decade competition has been virtually eliminated and their airports are full of blue/yellow 737's with their contracted crews.

Pilots employed by agencies are the same, they are usually employed with a contract in a country were they don't have to pay social security but are based in other countries, like Germany. My company does it for a few, contract pilots based in Germany not paying social security.

It seems that prostitutes and low cost airline pilots have a lot in common.

Anyone else seen this? They were talking about it on BBC breakfast today but seems to have been going on for a little while.

Bike couriers launch test cases in battle to boost ?meagre? pay | Transport | News | London Evening Standard

You are forgetting that Switzerland is not EU and they make their own tax deals as they like...

It would seem that Avion Express, Small Planet and Smart Lynx could well be on dodgy ground too then.

Aceypilot, this is exactly the attitude we must have and this is what we must teach to all the newcomers to our profession.

If we start respecting ourselves we might start getting respect from the companies too.

http://www.pprune.org/attachment.php...1&d=1463592693



For the avoidance of doubt, the correspondence shown here was received recently by pilots based in Germany using a well known "intermediary".

It is not to be construed as comment, criticism, neither accusation nor judgement on my part, and is reproduced here merely to keep interested parties updated on a developing situation.

Brookfield Aviation International Limited`s accounts for year ended 31 January 2015, filed at Companies House show:

Principle Activities : Provision of air crew services to the aviation industry.
£
Sales 119,106,108
Purchases 117,562,666

Gross Profit 1,643,442

So their business is to buy and sell air crew services. They have bought it for £117562666 and sold it for £119106108. Bit like buying bunches of bananas, wrapping them up in blue uniforms, sticking shiny little wings on the breast pockets and flogging them off to the various airlines.

As the wages excluding the directors are only £176,497, the payments described as purchases are not salaries/wages to air crew.

Now I don`t suppose any taxman is going to be happy sitting in the back of one of these planes with some kind of a bloke resembling a banana wrapped up in blue tissue, as the pilot of the aircraft taking him to a G20 meeting to squash tax dodging.

captplaystation: The documents you posted make a definite statement. The letter head is missing for authentication. Are you suggesting that there is an ongoing investigation by the German tax authorities into the MD of Brookfield I.A? Who is named in that investigation? What is the status of it? If the investigation is true what action is being made by RYR regarding it's pilots on BRK contracts? Are any new pilots being recruited via BRK? This disclosure raises many questions for which there must be interesting answers.

RAT The public prosecution in Koblenz is leading those investigations. They investigate against pilots and the contractor.

RAT5 , sorry, no further insights from my part, the document was passed on to me, and is posted , as I said, purely for info of anyone who is (or could be ) affected by the more zealous attitude recently adopted by some authorities (after years of ignoring same, as they were assuredly aware of the situation, they are certainly not that "dumb" nor blind/deaf. . . and the circumstances being investigated have been public knowledge for long enough. )

RAT 5 - Brookfield in Ryanair is dying. No new Brookfield contracts are being issued. All contractors are being offered contracts via Storm when their Brookfield contracts expire. For a period before I left, some were offered either Ryanair or Storm contracts but I understand this has now ceased.

My guess would be the intention is to wait for the last BRK contract to expire and then close Brookfield down.

Which might suggest something was not 100% kosher. How is the Storm set up different from the BRK one? i.e Why is the Storm construction less smelly than the BRK one?

I don't know any ins and outs as I never contracted through them but the setup is not quite the same as the old BRK Irish mess and, more importantly, Storm is a genuine agency which has only a part of its business placed with RYR. The fact that BRK did 99.8% of its business with Ryanair I understand was one of the big nails in its coffin from a tax/self-employment point of view.

Of course, Ryanair being Ryanair, Storm contracts pay FOs a lower rate than the Brookfield ones did. They haven't dared change the rate for Captains.

I found the BRK & Storm contracts unequivocally similar, with some minor clarifications in the latter.

What about the "Irish mess" ?

The lid must have come off these arrangements when Brookfields sued a Dutch pilot over failure to give due notice to terminate his contract. The case was heard on 26/07/2013 at the Central London County Court by HHJ Hand QC.

The full case transcript can be accessed at:

http://13oldsquare.com/files/documen...proved_jdg.pdf

It is a complete and uncensored revelation of the whole affair.

Here is a little taster, the judge`s comment about one of the claimant`s witnesses, a Mr.Declan Dooney.

"I found Mr Dooney to be a voluble and frequently glib witness, who for the
most part was not telling me the truth save in two respects." Para no 85 of court transcript.

Those lucky enough to get the job also had an accountant thrown in the bargain.

Here is the relevant extract from para 2

"In
order to fly planes for Ryanair a pilot had to choose a firm of accountants from a list of
accountants nominated by the Claimant and had to use a service company provided by
the accountants, of which service company he or she would become a director and
shareholder and, at least for the purposes of tax treatment by the Irish Revenue, be
regarded as an employee of the AESP. That service company would then enter into the
Contract with the Claimant whereby the service company would provide the services of
the pilot to the Claimant, which would, in turn, provide those services to Ryanair"

172_Driver - the later Storm contacts offered €5/hr less than the equivalent BRK in exchange for a 35h/month minimum pay guarantee.

The top rate on the latest contracts offered to Cadet FOs is €10/hr less than in mine. They are driving down the cost in the RHS as much as they possibly can, yet wonder why we all left. That's another thread though!

Except for the rates I meant, the 'Irish mess' was still present in the Storm contract. People working all over Europe throwing money in the Irish pot just because they're forced to work through an Irish Ltd.

Interesting, didn't expect that. It would be interesting to know why BRK and Ryanair agreed on a compromise agreement with on of the german pilots last November. It looks like that they want to avoid a judgement.

In Europe nowadays it is better to have a white vest - means pay your tax and social security. Europe has become(it always was ^^) very small and normally it is hard to hide if they are once tracking you.

15-20 years ago it was easy, even 10 years ago still possible without really having sleepless nights. I would not risk getting called in front of a court for social security violations(tax wise it is even worse).

Don't get me wrong - I know that people are still doging the system, but I don't think it is a wise thing to do. I do know pilots that earn 10k++ in Russia flying for an owner, still having a fake job back in central europe(don't want to specify, but it is a very social state) so they safe peanuts on social insurance.
And building houses. One day the tax office will knock on their door and asking how it is possible to build that house and nice car on 500 Euros/month. But some never get enough and eventually they will pay(a lot).

at least 3 UK airlines come to mind that use self employed contractors, but there are more. Have seen 2 contracts myself but did not go for it.

eJ may have and may still, I don't know. The other two ?

It still seems odd that Mike Ashely & Sports Direct can attract so much focus & energy from government committees about the work practices in that organisation, yet the smelly constructions going on in our profession seem not to raise any eyebrows?
Answers on a postcard to......BALPA? IALPA? Unite?

A few years ago UK Gov. discovered that some of its own civil servants, some of lofty status, had set up bogus self-employed constructions. They had only one customer - UK Gov. - and were taxing themselves as self employed with associated benefits and allowances. Once realised it was stamped on smartly. Why not spread the net wider?

Call Channel 4 Dispatches and get them to make a program about it, should get the ball rolling. :E :ok:

Saw West Atlantic advertising for just this kind of contract today. Also Jet2 and DHL UK do the same.

I ask again, what did Sports Direct do to attract the dire of the UK Gov? Not the HRMC tax office but the heavy hitters in committee. Some of their work practices under scrutiny sound familiar.
1. agency workers on zero hour contracts.
2. on duty for no pay.
3. no sick pay.
4. no holiday pay.
5. an atmosphere of intimidation

etc. etc. and this was under the nose of Unite union. God help those on their own.

IRISHPILOT
 

Irish. What is it you think DHL UK do?

MOL the Saint.....