question on ltd/employment

[Lance]

Still not an employee. That requires an employment contract and the way a company treats employees is different to that of office holders/directors. For example. A company has to legally pay an employee National Minium Wage. This does not apply to a director so can pay as little as they want which is why the low salary/high divs works so well for us. Don't quote me but also affects rights, redundancy etc to some extent.

But bottom line is, until you have an employment contract you an office holder/director, not an employee.

redundancy is an interesting one.
I know a guy who's LTD made him redundant, but as it had no money left the government paid the bill.

What stops some from making themselves redundant as part of a company closure though? A bit off topic, but £30k tax free cash is not be sniffed at prior to winding up a company... This would be one reason for the director to actually be an employee.
The process of making a company director redundant | Redundancy Claims UK

[northernladuk]

redundancy is an interesting one.
I know a guy who's LTD made him redundant, but as it had no money left the government paid the bill.

What stops some from making themselves redundant as part of a company closure though? A bit off topic, but £30k tax free cash is not be sniffed at prior to winding up a company... This would be one reason for the director to actually be an employee.
The process of making a company director redundant | Redundancy Claims UK

Definitely one for another thread. We don't do it, it's not on any guides and generally people asking about redundancy on here don't get the answer you want so you would assume the deafing silence tells you it's not for us and to move on.

A deep dive in to the possible might uncover something but as I say, as it's not standard practice or written about endlessly speaks volumes.

There is a nice article here on it
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/insolvency/content/101126

But both yours and this article mentions that the directory needs to be an employee as well. That doesn't work for us so seems to be the end of it for a vast majority of us.

[Slx]

Still not an employee. That requires an employment contract and the way a company treats employees is different to that of office holders/directors. For example. A company has to legally pay an employee National Minium Wage. This does not apply to a director so can pay as little as they want which is why the low salary/high divs works so well for us. Don't quote me but also affects rights, redundancy etc to some extent.

But bottom line is, until you have an employment contract you an office holder/director, not an employee.

Thank you, not sure it was clear, I choose to work 7-8 months per year, personal reasons. Clients don't care about breaks they just want to see experience, knowledge, the ones that care about this, don't ask for meetings/interviews etc

I get the offer then agency seems to be bother by gaps in month, what did you do between contracts, long break/vacation, too many etc (not all agencies cares but some asks details) In my view I argue there is no gap as I pay my salary continously every month as director of the ltd, searching for contracts is work/job and it is paid. Which is not actually 'the same' as being employee, it is annoying and trying to find ways to move around this.

Where I can get details on this "That requires an employment contract and the way a company treats employees is different to that of office holders/directors". My salary has been 15k/annual on a bad year, on good years I pay myself little bit more in salary. Covering NMW was never an issue. I don't see how having an employment contract makes any difference at all, I get P60 from ltd anyway.

[velcro]

I've been asked to justify gaps a few times, usually because it's a requirement for security clearance, and they'll ask for a reference from the accountant to cover the period.
The companies or agencies are basically checking that you haven't been in prison during the gap. Tell them you were on maternity leave, renovating your house, looking after a relative, etc.

[malvolio]

Thank you, not sure it was clear, I choose to work 7-8 months per year, personal reasons. Clients don't care about breaks they just want to see experience, knowledge, the ones that care about this, don't ask for meetings/interviews etc

I get the offer then agency seems to be bother by gaps in month, what did you do between contracts, long break/vacation, too many etc (not all agencies cares but some asks details) In my view I argue there is no gap as I pay my salary continously every month as director of the ltd, searching for contracts is work/job and it is paid. Which is not actually 'the same' as being employee, it is annoying and trying to find ways to move around this.

Where I can get details on this "That requires an employment contract and the way a company treats employees is different to that of office holders/directors". My salary has been 15k/annual on a bad year, on good years I pay myself little bit more in salary. Covering NMW was never an issue. I don't see how having an employment contract makes any difference at all, I get P60 from ltd anyway.

It makes a difference because an employee has a different legal framework to an officer of the company.

Also helps to understand redundancy. For a director that's a real Catch 22, since to make yourself redundant you have to be in post as an officer of the company or if you close the company there's nobody in post to make you redundant.

HTH...

[northernladuk]

Where I can get details on this "That requires an employment contract and the way a company treats employees is different to that of office holders/directors". My salary has been 15k/annual on a bad year, on good years I pay myself little bit more in salary. Covering NMW was never an issue. I don't see how having an employment contract makes any difference at all, I get P60 from ltd anyway.

You do some basic googling. You should know this being a director and being responsible for your company.

https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/director

Having an emplyment contract makes all the difference. It makes you officially an employee and not an office holder and therefore your legal rights change. One is you must be paid NMW. As a director you don't need to and many contractors use this to pay themselves the most efficient amount. You've also got a ton of other rights.

Paying yourself more in good years isn't tax efficient. It is your right to be able to avoid tax where it is legal so no idea why you change your salary levels but that's your issue.

[gixxer2021]

I can sympathise with this I’ve had some pretty intrusive questions about gaps between contracts as well, as I used to enjoy taking time off between them especially during the summer (not a fashionable thing to do but but I enjoy the work/life balance!). I even had to provide ferry details etc for one agency after time off, and diy receipts etc. Now I just work on small projects between contracts if I’m taking time off and provide them with the website name and say I’ve been working on this for x weeks/months. One agency even emailed the website asking for a reference for me for the dates, which I duly provided ?

[krytonsheep]

I am getting contracts around 8-9 months per year. Each time I get a new contract I am being asked by agencies to justify the 'gap in employment' as it is not covered by start/end of the assignments.

Been contracting for a long time, never been asked about gaps or for any references. Sounds a bit weird. Does the question about gaps, get followed up with 'who was the hiring manager?'.

[eek]

Been contracting for a long time, never been asked about gaps or for any references. Sounds a bit weird. Does the question about gaps, get followed up with 'who was the hiring manager?'.

Agencies are asked to provide references going back the last x years and because they are incompetent cheapstakes do it badly rather than offloading it to a third party.

[escapeUK]

I once had that question, why wasn't I working? My reply was "because I have hundreds of thousands in the bank and I don't need to."

A lot of the wage slaves simply cannot comprehend how someone could go months or years and not work, and they think you were desperately looking for work while living on benefits or something.