IR35 fee payer

To ensure that individuals who work through their own company pay employment taxes in a similar way to employees and would be employed were it not for their limited company or other intermediary that they work through.

HMRC have stated that they introduced these changes to improve fairness in the tax system by ensuring that individuals are not able to sidestep employment taxes or National Insurance Contributions by working through a personal service company (PSC).

HMRC have an IR35 assessment tool to support hirers and agencies in assessing status, known as the Check Employment Status for Tax Service (CEST).

If the hirer deems your status to be outside of IR35 for this assignment, giant will require a status determination statement from the hirer along with a copy of the HMRC online tool report (CEST) showing the questions and answers used to arrive at the decision of outside IR35.

We aim to respond to all queries within 24 hours and have a robust complaints procedure in line with our employee handbook.

Your company has a contract for services, with giant as the fee-payer. This is not an employment contract.

No, the payment can only be made in respect of yourself.

Under the Off-payroll working rules, it is the hirer’s responsibility to determine your IR35 status. If you do not agree with their determination, we recommend you speak with your agency or hirer to understand how they have reached their decision. The hirer should have an appeal process.

Yes, your portal includes all of the information you require to track your time, invoices and payments and also facilitates direct communication between us.

You do not have to close your company if you decide you wish to be paid through an umbrella company. You may choose assignment income that is inside IR35 to be paid through our umbrella company, but continue to invoice through your limited company for all other assignments outside of IR35. 

You should speak to your accountant and take advice as to whether there is a need for the company still to be open.

No, this still remains the responsibility of your limited company and we will request copies of your insurance certificates during the onboarding process.

No, HMRC state that pension contributions are not a fee-payer’s responsibility. As a director of your PSC, pension responsibilities remain with you and your PSC and not giant. If you wish to make or continue pension contributions, then you will need to arrange these yourself via your PSC.

Yes, we’ll provide you with a P60 after the end of the tax year. The P60 will include the deemed employment payment as well as tax and National Insurance contributions paid on it. You should enter these figures on the employment page of your Self-Assessment tax return.
 

The new rate will be calculated based on the assignment rate the agency pays to giant less: 

• giant margin 
• employer’s NI 
• apprenticeship levy

We will issue you with a contract reflecting your agreed contract rate.

The new rate will be calculated based on the assignment rate the agency pays to giant less: 

• giant margin

We will issue you with a contract reflecting your agreed contract rate.

If HMRC have instructed us to use a correct tax code, you shouldn’t need to. The payment is treated as employment income from your limited company and so you should include it with any other employment income on your self-assessment tax return. Once you complete your self-assessment, HMRC will calculate if any further tax is due taking into account all income from all sources.

No.

No we don’t. We only retain a margin when we are processing funds to your limited company.

Please refer to the net pay illustration calculation to check our margin.

Under the Off-payroll working rules, if inside IR35, the fee-payer (party paying your limited company) must deduct and pay to HMRC employer’s national insurance and the apprenticeship levy – it is a statutory requirement. The rate that the agency pays to giant must cover these employment costs and our margin. To get your new rate for your limited company, we deduct these costs first and the remaining balance is your new assignment rate, which is then subject to PAYE tax and employee’s National Insurance.

PAYE tax is deducted by us using a Basic Rate (BR) tax code of 20%. Within approximately eight weeks HMRC send us an updated tax code to use, which will ensure we are applying the appropriate level of tax. If you leave our service before this tax code comes through you may have additional tax to pay on your self-assessment return. 

As the fee payer we are liable for deducting the wrong amount of tax. This liability cannot be transferred to you the contractor.

No. For every payment we will issue a self-bill invoice which matches the payment we make to you and upon receiving the payment you will receive a remittance advice from us. All electronically.

VAT, if applicable, is charged by you on the new contract rate with giant. We will issue your company with a self-bill invoice which will show any VAT (and the tax deductions for those that are inside IR35)

If the agency are paying billable expenses, these will be paid to giant and we will pay them directly to your limited company.

If you have business expenses purchased by your limited company that you want to process to reduce your tax liabilities, then you will need to liaise with your accountant.

No. When you calculate your company’s corporation tax liability, deduct the amount of the deemed employment payment and class 1 employer’s national insurance contributions due on it. This deduction is only allowed when you calculate the taxable profits for the accounting period in which the deemed employment payment is treated as paid.

Your agency will send us your timesheet information electronically (known as DX – Data Exchange) upon us processing the file, we will pay you the next working day via faster payment. Faster payment means the funds will clear in your account on the same day and so you won’t need to wait the usual 2-3 working days for payment to clear.

When we pay you we issue you with a remittance advice.

We will pay your company in line with the same frequency that your agency pays us – i.e. if they pay us weekly, we will pay you weekly; and if they pay us monthly, we will pay you monthly.

Your agency will confirm the notice period for the assignment and we will populate this on the assignment schedule you are offered online with us.

Yes, ensuring that you have served the relevant notice period. Some agencies will only allow you to change engagement model either at the point of extension or new assignment and so you should check their policy on allowing changes. (there is no fee for leaving)

No, when we receive timesheet details from your agency, we will issue a self-bill invoice.

Self-bill invoices will be available to view and download via the giant portal which is mobile compatible and available 24/7. Your invoice will be available to view the day prior to the scheduled payment.

Yes, it will. Each time you are paid, a remittance will be made available on your portal. This details the gross invoice amount, any applicable deductions such as tax and National Insurance (if you’re inside IR35) and the net total. See an example below of what you can expect it to display.

We will need to agree this engagement model with your agency first. Once agreed, when we receive your assignment information from your agency, we will contact you to commence your onboarding. 
 

We will ask you to provide us with your personal details (e.g. name, DOB, address, etc..), your company details, including your company registration number, VAT status, business insurance certificates and your business bank details; we will also require you to complete and identity check. Once received, we will email you your login details to the portal. Here you will be asked to accept your assignment and complete a Starter Declaration.

Under our anti-money laundering policy, we are required to also check your identity and address and will request a copy of your passport and proof of address documents during onboarding.

Once you have completed the onboarding compliance steps and your agency have confirmed your assignment details,  your contract documents will be made available to you to view and accept electronically online.