Agency reporting requirements

As we all know, HMRC is continually changing legislation in an effort to reduce tax avoidance but also to basically stop people from contracting and instead take on a PAYE role. From 5 April 2015 onwards employment intermediaries including recruitment agencies must send quarterly reports to HMRC detailing workers that aren’t counted as employees – either because they are under PAYE elsewhere (e.g. at an umbrella company) or because the agency doesn’t control or supervise those workers.

Your agency will be getting in touch with you and asking for the following details which are the reporting requirements; full name (with title), date of birth, gender, address, national insurance number (or passport number if they don’t have an NI number) and unique taxpayer reference (if they are self-employed or a member of a partnership).

Note, that contractors who subcontract other contractors to complete projects where the subcontractor is required to work on the client’s site will also be classed as an employment intermediary. Limited company contractors subcontracting in this way are classed as intermediaries and will be required to implement the reporting requirements.

The reporting requirements are not onerous but we do not know yet what the impact will be and how HMRC plans to use this data.