Employment contracts for the Company Secretary, Dir-r etc

[ASB]

Simple

AtW,

As Bradley says Employment Contracts are now compulsory, but if you check with the DTI (you can probably find it on their website) you should find that they are only compulsory for Employees.

A company secretary is an office holder.
Directors are office holders.
Chairman is an office holder.

Office holders do not have to be employees (they can be though).

As to payment the fees they are paid accrue to employed earners. i.e. they are treated in exactly the same way as wages. You will need to request a tax code for your cosec (fill out a P46 I think). You will then get a tax code of "BR" if they have other employement. Operate PAYE on their fees, submit them on your P35 etc at the end of year.

HTH.

[silicondale]

PAYE and contracts ...

... are two completely separate questions.

As ASB says, a company can (indeed must) pay its employees and its office holders through PAYE if they are individuals (it's possible for an office holder to be a company or a partnership such as a firm of accountants - in which case PAYE wouldn't apply).

The office holders do not need service or employment contracts.

[xoggoth]

Re: PAYE and contracts ...

Have you checked that you actually need someone else as a company secretary?? As somebody has said above, it really is a non-existent role other than legally.

AFIK you can be both sole director and company sec. Can't be bothered to check that 100% as you can do that for yourself on Co Hse website.

[silicondale]

No

Xog - no, that's one thing that's not allowed. You cannot be a sole director and company secretary at the same time. In my own company, my wife and I are both directors and I am company secretary, and it works fine.

[xoggoth]

Re: No

Bummer. Must be a damn nuisance for people who can't find anyone willing or trustworthy enough to do it.

[AtW]

Re: No

Gents - many thanks for your insightful comments!

Let me just summarise what you said so far, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong:

1) Company Director and Secretary are "the office holders", who do not require to be employed

2) I register the company for PAYE purposes and can just pay myself or the Secretary via it without having an employment contract for either of us -- this would still not make either of us self-employed

planetit: its my good friend, we agreed rate of 25 per hour, I know responsibilities are low but the guy wanted to make sure its all legally fine -- he used to be self employed and does not want to switch to self employment for few quid because it would be more trouble than its worth.

-------

This brings the question: what are the implications of registering for PAYE? Can it be delayed (don't expect Secretary to do anything for a while - perhaps I am wrong?)

thanks again guys

[Mark Snowdon]

2 directors ?

I understood that it was OK these days to have only one director. But the Memorandum need to say something specific.

AtW - you know that the directors / co sec do not have to be in the UK, dont you ? Nothing to stop Russians in Russia being the appropriate office holders.

[xoggoth]

Re: 2 directors ?

Unfortunately the bastard IR is now informed by Co House of a co setup and registers you for PAYE whether you like it or not. It really pisses me off having to keep sending null payslips and fill in P11D, P14 etc etc with lots of 0s.

[AtW]

Re: 2 directors ?

Nothing to stop Russians in Russia being the appropriate office holders.

Yeah I could use my sister, but its dodgy enough to have a UK Limited company with the sole director whose nationality is listed as Russian :rolleyes

I understood that it was OK these days to have only one director.

Sadly role of a secretary can't be shared by the only director :rolleyes

Unfortunately the bastard IR is now informed by Co House of a co setup and registers you for PAYE whether you like it or not. It really pisses me off having to keep sending null payslips and fill in P11D, P14 etc etc with lots of 0s.

oh sh1t, do you have to send empty payslips every month? I have not called IR yet, and have not received PAYE packs either, from what point of time would they expect me to start submitting paperwork to them (I was not planning to pay myself until next year). :rolleyes

[planetit]

Re: 2 directors ?

Register for quaterly PAYE, then you only have to send a null payslip every 3 months.