21 people were arrested in dawn raids by HMRC, working with the police, investigating a multi million pound Construction Industry fraud. If you recall I warned readers about convoluted schemes aimed at subcontractors – there are a lot out there and it’s not a simple question of these guys trying to be self employed there are plenty of schemes out there that involve subcontractors being on PAYE and being encouraged to claim excessive expenses – big style problems occur when the organisation that runs them disappears as is the case in question!

and disappear they do – leaving the subcontractor really in the mire, as no PAYE/NIC is ever paid over to HMRC even though it has been deducted from the subbies – you’ve been warned – if it looks too good to be true, it probably is and don’t expect sympathy when a tax investigation heads your way as HMRC will want their pound of flesh from somewhere and effectively you’ve been left holding the baby!

This employment tax expert says quite simply don’t go for convoluted structures, keep it simple, factually correct and you can still save money and beware schemes like those mentioned whether you be a contractor of subcontractor – it can catch both sides!