Dodgy tax avoidance schemes? No thanks
By: Lorna, CEO, redwigwam
At the end of 2016, the then chancellor, Phillip Hammond announced his decision to close an aggressive tax avoidance scheme which was exposed by The Guardian as ‘depriving the taxpayer of “hundreds of millions” pounds a year.
The original investigation claims temporary recruitment agencies – like ours – are making ‘large windfalls’ by basically using dodgy financial arrangements to slash their national insurance bills.
In laymen’s terms, the agencies involved are transferring their worker’s contracts from a single employment agency into thousands of tiny companies that benefit from tax breaks. Each of the smaller companies is run by overseas directors. Each agency can then claim a one-off employment allowance of £3000 every year. Some agencies are even keeping these schemes secret from the businesses they are supplying staff to.
For honest agencies like us at redwigwam, this behaviour is incredibly frustrating. It gives people like us a bad name. Because we work very hard to make sure we are absolutely doing the right thing. By both our hirers and workers.
It’s true the world of work is changing. Not everyone wants to be in full-time, permanent employment. Temporary work suits all manner of people, for all manner of reasons. And it’s good for businesses too. Imagine being able to quickly be matched with a handful of perfect workers during busy periods if you just need an extra pair of hands for a couple of weeks.
And this is exactly what we do at redwigwam. We match fully vetted and validated workers who have the relevant skills and time to all manner of flexible, part-time, and temporary jobs. And most importantly, we pay our workers. Within 24 hours of completion of the job. And we sort out tax and national insurance too. Completely above the line, in the right way.
So, if you are on the lookout for either temporary work or workers, do your research first. If something seems a bit dodgy, it probably is. And I think it would be better to avoid them altogether. Stick with the decent agencies, who are fully above board. It’s where the best jobs and workers will be too of course!
