Traditionally, the construction industry has often faced
problems with the taxman, and consequent tax liability, over
whether operatives are classed as being subbies or directly
employed.
Back in 2009, we
wrote about how, after decades of grumbling about false
self-employment in the construction industry, the Government had
decided it is time to tackle the problem head on and legislate to
make the position clearer. Three years on what has happened
to the proposals? Why have they still not materialised?
What's the scale of the problem?
According to HMRC and HMT, false self-employment occurs where
workers are treated as self-employed for the purposes of income tax
and National Insurance contributions (NICs) despite the fact that
the way in which the work is carried out on a day to day basis
demonstrates that there is an employment relationship. The number
of subcontractors working within the Construction Industry Scheme
(CIS) in 2007/8 who did not claim
