I consider myself to be a reasonable and honest general building contractor and rarely have problems with the people I’m working for, because I’m not out to take advantage of them. RBS confirmed to The Register that contractors will be allowed to continue to operate through their limited companies until 28 February 2020, but must switch their engagement type to either PAYE (pay as you earn) or umbrella (running payroll through an org that employs a number of contractors) to continue their assignment beyond this date.
Moving contractors to an “Assignment Rate” means Employers National Insurance, Apprenticeship Levy (0.5 per cent), Employers Pension Contributions and any agency fees will be deducted from their rate, with no “uplift” offered to offset these added costs.
The Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP) is an optional program that provides taxpayers with an opportunity to reclassify their workers as employees for future tax periods for employment tax purposes with partial relief from federal employment taxes for eligible taxpayers that agree to prospectively treat their workers (or a class or group of workers) as employees.
These are warnings designed to notify an owner that if the pays the contractor and the contractor fails to pay the sub-contractors, suppliers and materialmen, the owner remains liable for payment and in fact can end up making a double payment should the contractor breach the contract.
I once told someone that I was going to start their job on February 1, I had signed a contract and receive their down payment, that would not be refunded to them, if they pulled out of the contract, about one month sooner than I was able to start the job and they were acceptable with this proposal.