I had an email from Digital Camera Magazine/Futurenet last week asking if they could buy an image for repro together with a few words; being an avid collector of money I struck a deal with them, sent them the image and wordage, together with the invoice and their standard contributor account form.
This morning I get a "questionnaire" from their accounts payable department asking, nee demanding - I fill it in, or I won't get paid.
I opened up the .pdf file attachment and was frankly horrified at the information they demanded, all under the guise of HMRC and the IR.
One of the questions even asked "How many other clients have you done similar work for during the last 12 months?"
I rang their accounts department and went through the document with him - at his suggestion the majority of questions were answered as "not applicable".
Now this ain't my first dance at the ball by a long shot, but it's the first time I've ever had requests for NI numbers, self-employed tax numbers, names on bank account, is bank account "business or private" etc: from a UK publisher. Usually a standard pro-forma invoice suffices for them, and overseas requirements are nothing worse W8BEN form.
Could it be that the Tax Man has identified a revenue stream he's been missing out on?
So if you are approached by Futurenet then you will receive this document somewhere down the line - just be very careful about how you answer the questions.
Their accounts dept has probably panicked and overreacted to the new real time reporting requirements from HRMC - esp. as, with the 'democratisation' of photography, they probably pay a lot of hobbyists rather than businesses these days - and the taxman knows hobbyists love not telling HMRC about their small-change .
"As before the introduction of RTI; this will come down to a question and interpretation of fact. If an ‘employer’ is making any payment to a worker, this must be reported via RTI unless the ‘employer’ has satisfied themselves that the individual is self-employed. This will come down to whether they feel able to justify and demonstrate this to HMRC if questions were asked"
It's all part of HRMC's attempts to turn everyone into some sort of employee and demand NI, employers contributions etc -
I've had a similar experience with a stock agency and Google. I've had to self cert as they both report earnings to HMRC. Its absolute nonsense as last year I made a miserable pittance that wouldn't buy you a decent meal.
"Could it be that the Tax Man has identified a revenue stream he's been missing out on? "
Of course he has. The tax man has to find some way of pulling back the billions not paid by the likes of Amazon and Google, who better th o pick on than the poverty stricken?
Discussion
3 repliesThis morning I get a "questionnaire" from their accounts payable department asking, nee demanding - I fill it in, or I won't get paid.
I opened up the .pdf file attachment and was frankly horrified at the information they demanded, all under the guise of HMRC and the IR.
One of the questions even asked "How many other clients have you done similar work for during the last 12 months?"
I rang their accounts department and went through the document with him - at his suggestion the majority of questions were answered as "not applicable".
Now this ain't my first dance at the ball by a long shot, but it's the first time I've ever had requests for NI numbers, self-employed tax numbers, names on bank account, is bank account "business or private" etc: from a UK publisher. Usually a standard pro-forma invoice suffices for them, and overseas requirements are nothing worse W8BEN form.
Could it be that the Tax Man has identified a revenue stream he's been missing out on?
So if you are approached by Futurenet then you will receive this document somewhere down the line - just be very careful about how you answer the questions.
"As before the introduction of RTI; this will come down to a question and interpretation of fact. If an ‘employer’ is making any payment to a worker, this must be reported via RTI unless the ‘employer’ has satisfied themselves that the individual is self-employed. This will come down to whether they feel able to justify and demonstrate this to HMRC if questions were asked"
It's all part of HRMC's attempts to turn everyone into some sort of employee and demand NI, employers contributions etc
The little people always suffer in austerity....
Of course he has. The tax man has to find some way of pulling back the billions not paid by the likes of Amazon and Google, who better th o pick on than the poverty stricken?