Consultations & legislation
At Budget 2009, the Government announced that it remained committed to addressing the problem of false self-employment in the construction industry and would consult with a view to future legislation. This consultation outlines the Government’s proposal for ensuring that construction workers engaged in an employment relationship are taxed appropriately. The objective of the consultation is to develop the best legislative approach.
False self-employment occurs where workers are treated as self-employed for income tax and National Insurance 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 problem of false self-employment affects not only the ability of compliant businesses to be competitive, but also workers’ entitlement to social security benefits, as well as representing a risk to the Exchequer.
The Government welcomes comments on its proposal and in particular on the questions raised in the consultation document.
All comments should be received by 12 October 2009 and should be sent to:
Lisa Fitzpatrick, False self-employment in the construction industry consultation, Personal Tax Team, HM Treasury, 2/SE, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ
Or email construction.consultation@hm-treasury.gov.uk
The consultation is available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.
The Government has published a summary of responses to False self-employment in construction: taxation of workers, including its response to stakeholder comments.
As announced in the 2009 Pre-Budget Report, the Government remains committed to addressing the problem of false self-employment in construction and will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a legislative solution that is well targeted, effective and that allows the industry to retain a flexible labour supply.
