I was offered a sales/ admin role for a company near me last year. advertised on indeed as a full time permanent position. nothing in the advert stated self employment.

gave p45 from last job, NI number, passport and bank details.

paid by bacs every week @ £260. the arrangement was for commission to be paid on top also but did no happen due to lack of business.

part of my role was to drive to businesses in my own car. the owner gave me cash everyday for fuel despite asking for it to be placed in my account.

after 2 months i became concerned that i had not had any payslips or a contract so approached the boss.

He informed me that i was on the books as a self employed administrator/ sales consultant and i would need to prepare him invoices for the past 8 weeks.

informed the owner that this was not how the job was advertised online and i expected to receive payslips and a contract.

on the way home, received a text message saying my attitude is terrible and my services are no longer required.

upon closer inspection, i realised he was paying me from his personal bank account, not the businesses.

As far as i am concerned i was mislead in believing the role was full time and permanent. i trusted the owner of the company to prepare all the paperwork and i submitted the appropriate information for him to put me on the books properly.

i am now concerned that i will be chased for the tax i may or may have not paid to hmrc.

i dont plan to make a song an dance about it.i know i should have asked for my contract earlier. i have learned a valuable lesson from this and now in secure employment.

I am just worried that HMRC will throw the book at me if they find out and he will get away with what he did.

from what i can gather when i spoke to other clients, the owner has done this to several other sales consultants who also left after a few months.

any advice/ experience most welcome.

no,

HMRC will throw the book at them

so go ahead and report them.

Now,

did you receive payment that is clearly gross salary or were you offered say £300 as £260 a week is less than the minimum wage unless your working day was only 6 hours.

something else to drag up if you wish.

the correct place is an employment tribunal

but I would start off with speaking to the advisors at ACAS.

It doesnt look like you were self employed for several reasons,

ACAS can explain more but you didnt decide where you went and who you spoke to nor the hours worked.

What account the money came from is irrelevant.

Can you get a copy of the online ad and save it?

Otherwise,

if you don't want to involve HMRC (but i would),

Send him invoices for £20/hour for all the time you worked there accompanied by a letter.

Thank him for the advance payments he made to you and give him a deadline of 30 days to pay the balance on the invoices.

If he fails to do this you can pursue the matter in county court.

Better chance to win if you have hard proof that he said you were self employed.

thank you for the advice chaps and sorry for not getting back so long.

So what's happened since we saw you last?

HB

hey HB sorry for the late reply, ive started a new role and working 65 hour weeks.

to be honest i havnt done anything apart from check out their linkedin profile which i was tasked with updating etc. the owner now appears to have taken on a director of training and employed another staff member as well. it was just me before running the whole training department.

i was tempted to contact hmrc but i am still uneasy as i dont want them to chase me for unpaid tax if he manages to talk his way out of it.

in theory i was owed several days holiday as he did not pay me for a day off i had to attend a wedding. plus i would have accumulated holiday during employment.

i worked for the company from sept to nov 2016. i have never asked him for a reference and when asked during interviews why i left, i always explain that after 8 weeks i was told i was self employed and was forced to leave. most companies understand this.

i dont have the original advert so even if i did report him it would be his work against mine would it not?

im still angry that this "business man" was willing to take advantage of me, get me in trouble with hmrc and get rid of me when his realised i was onto his games. i dont lose sleep over it, but i can see why some businesses go under and get in trouble with hmrc now. this chap has an expensive lifestyle whilst conning his employees.

if i was to report him, would hmrc do anything to me? if they ever did contact me, could i show them statements which show £260 paid in every week? ive just found a job description for the role i asked for and an invite to interview email. nothing in both of them indicates a self employed position. i simply would not take it if that was the case.

invite to interview email:

Thank you for applying for the Customer Sales Advisor job that we advertised.

After looking through your CV, we would love for you to come in for an interview with us on .....

Please contact me if this is a suitable for you.

We look forward to meeting you.

job description:

Duties will include

· Telephone calls canvassing new business

· Maintaining a large database, ensuring all data is correct and current

· Assisting with multi-channel marketing campaigns

· Mail merging letters and emails

· Assisting with social media content

· Emailing potential clients

· Writing, proof and publishing web content and blogs

You will be require to interact with new businesses to generate an interest and uptake of our training products, you will also be required to follow up warm leads and may need to respond to enquiries made through our website, telephone and social media channels.

We are looking for the ideal candidate t have a confident telephone manner; the ability and desire to sell; have excellent communication; and be highly motivated and calm under pressure. The successful candidate will be able to work to targets, provide new ideas and adapt to get results.

they will chase the employer for unpaid tax as you ARENT self employed.

Thats it, you do nothing but moan and we will continue to waste our time and in the meanwhile you will be doomed to repeat your mistakes by not learing from them.

This is a help forum, if you just want to complain then use the bear garden.