Employed v Self Employed

[Liamos]

I know there are various advantages and disadvantages to being a PAYE worker versus self employed, but are there savings to be made by being self employed? In other words discuss with your employer the possibility of him hiring your services as a self employed person. If you were disciplined enough to put your tax payable into a deposit account each month until October of the following year when the tax would be due, surely there would be a nice amount of interest accumulating on it each month?

 

[Complainer]

And then Revenue come back and deem you as an employee (regardless of what you and your employer say), and hit you and your employer with interest and penalties for the late PAYE.

 

[Welfarite]

Yeah, I'm afraid it's not up to the individual to decide their employment status; Revenue decide that. In saying that, what you are suggesting is that you set yourself up as self-employed and contract yourself out to your former employer; this would mean he cannot direct you in the hours you work, the amount you charge him, etc. You will lose the benefits of insurance cover as an employee, plus PRSI cover for unemployment, sickness, etc..

 

[z107]

You'll also miss out on PAYE tax credit, and will probably end up paying far more tax.
There are no real financial advantages to being self-employed. There are many disadvantages though - filing returns, paying accountants, paying more tax, losing social welfare benefits etc...

 

[anthony 1]

trust me from a self employed person.. im self employed in a small company.. its very tough//serious paperwork which stifles entrepreneurship in this country.. too much hassle.. there should be less paper work for sme's. if your company is doing poorly you cant get the dole etc.. not a good situation..the country is backward

 

[simplyjoe]

Yeah. If you are currently employed there would have to be a serious change in your relationship with your 'employer' to justify a S/E determination. Its not the revenue that determines whether you are s/e or employed. There are what are called 'badges of trade'. These are questions like 'where do you work?' 'who supplies the tools of the trade', 'are you supervised?' etc.. There are about 20-30 questions and there is plenty of case law. You cannot just sign this away. Its the facts that determine your relationship not what you wish it to be. The previous posters are correct. The tax saving would need to be large to justify S/E. The benefits of being an employee
holiday pay - bank holidays - UB - DB - statutory redundancy - insurance - unfair dismissal - minimum wage - generous tax free expense milage and subsistence rates.