HMRC Employment Status Indicator Interactive Tool

Guide to using HMRC’s Employment Status Indicator Interactive Tool

If you have completed a checklist and are still unsure of the employment status of the person you are engaging, you can use the ESI tool on the following link.

www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/esi.htm

This tool will guide you through some basic questions and give you an employment status along with the reasoning for this decision.

EXAMPLE

In the example below we are trying to determine the employment status of a guest speaker at a training event.

The following questions were asked:

·  Under the terms of their contract, if the worker is unable or unwilling to carry out the work personally do they have to provide someone else to do it?

o  We answered YES

·  Does the contractual obligation to provide a substitute reflect what happens or would happen in practice if the worker is unable or unwilling to carry out the work personally?

o  We answered YES

·  Under the terms of the contract, does the worker have to pay the other person brought in to do the work in their place?

o  We answered YES

The interactive tool has now given us the following status along with the reasoning behind the decision, which you can share with the person you are engaging.

The worker is self-employed.

The reasoning applied in reaching this conclusion is set out below. Answers you have provided are presented as active links. To change or review any of the answers, use the links provided.

This conclusion is justified on the following grounds:

The worker is self-employed.

The worker's trade is out of scope is not true.

There is a determinate indication of substitution.

Any obligation of substitution on the worker is realistic.

There is a realistic obligation of substitution on the worker.

Under the terms of their contract, the worker has to provide someone else to do the work if they are unable or unwilling to carry out the work personally.

The contractual obligation to provide a substitute reflects what happens or would happen in practice if the worker is unable or unwilling to carry out the work personally.

Any right of substitution on the worker is realistic.

There is a high indication of substitution.

Under the terms of the contract, the worker has to pay the other person brought in to do the work in their place.