There are a number of considerations that should be given careful thought before
employing members of staff. These range from the legal aspects through to the
financial burdens.
Before you can employ staff members, you will need to register with the Inland Revenue, and
set up a PAYE Scheme. This involves
preparing the necessary payroll paperwork, and obtaining a PAYE reference. Once in
place, you will receive all the necessary booklets and information required to run
your own scheme.
You may also need to consider whether your staff are actually employed by you, or whether
they are classed as 'self employed'. In this situation, the person becomes a sub-contractor to you, and as such, should provide you with invoices for their services. There are a number of legal differences between a person who is self employed, and an employee, and it is wise to seek assistance in this matter, from your accountant.
Processing payroll can be a time consuming and extremely complex task, and many businesses choose to outsource this burden, either to their accountants, or dedicated Payroll Bureaus.
Restructuring, refinancing, buy-outs or floatations, were here to help.
Specialist advisory services are available through HW.
Many employees have circumstances that require additional payroll calculations, such as student loans, working tax credits, child support charges and other deductions or income.
If you pay your employees above certain PAYE and National Insurance limits, you will
need to make regular payments to the Inland Revenue, of any Tax and National Insurance
that has been deducted during the payroll processing period. These normally run from
the 6th day of each month, and are to be paid over to the Revenue by the 19th of each
month.
With payroll processing comes the added burden of completing the plethora of additional
forms required by the Inland Revenue on a monthly basis. These include End of Year
Forms, monthly returns and other such paperwork. Again, HW can help you
complete these returns where necessary.
Depending on your employment circumstances, you may need to complete certain end of year forms, such as P11D's. These are required where staff members are provided benefits such as company cars, loans and other non monetary benefits. Not all such benefits require
the completion of P11D's, but this is an area that HW can advise you on.
You must also consider the effect of payroll legislation such as Minimum Wage requirements, and other employment law:
Employment Law
Minimum wage legislation was brought in by the government to ensure that low paid employees earned at a minimum level.
There are a number of levels of minimum wage, dependant on age, and the legislation
surrounding this changes regularly. If you are not sure about what you should do,
contact your local HW office
.
With employees, comes additional expense and paperwork, most noticeably the need
to provide contracts of employment. Most employment contracts state the expectations
of the employer, the employees rights and requirements, grievance procedures and
other such information. Without a written contract of employment, you may be surprised to find that such rights may still exist for the employee.
Another consideration is the health and safety at work of your employees. This is
similar to the requirements of your customers health and safety, and requires that
all reasonable measures are in place to ensure that employees are not put at risk,
including such matters as protective clothing, written evidence of insurance, and
any other provisions as necessary within your trade.
Whilst this section does not attempt to cover all aspects of employment and law, it shows
that this is an area that requires careful planning and implementation. Without this,
you may find yourself in a difficult position later on. To make sure this doesn't happen, get help
by contacting your local HW office
.
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