Dance teacher self employment

[Bluebird22]

Just after a few pointers regarding self employment as a dance teacher

 

I'm unsure whether certain things are standard for self employed people. HMRC talk only in terms of standard businesses and I struggle to find the dance teacher equivalent

 

-Purchasing of set uniform

-Amount of notice for holidays?

-Amount of holidays allowed?

-Unbillable hours for admin jobs

-Payment method determined by the school not the teacher

-Hours of work cancelled (no payment) when the teacher has turned up to teach

 

I've yet to find the perks in self employment, seems like a huge headache!

[Picturesinthefirelight]

I've got some experience in this area.

 

My husband has worked both as an employed and self employed singing teacher.  As a school owner I have contracted self employed drama, singing and dance teachers and I currently work in the construction industry for a firm who used both employed labour and self employed sub-contractors.

 

As a self employed person you and the contractor (dance school) make a contract for services (this can be verbal but its better in writing).  This should lay down payment terms (monthly invoice etc) As a contractor I have always decided payment method both for the theatre school (bank transfer) and for the construction firm (cheque).  You can negotiate payment terms but its up to the person/school contracting you as to whether they choose to engage you on those terms.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by purchasing set uniform.  In the construction industry a self employed subbie is responsible for supplying their own workwear & Protective Personal equipment. The dance equivalent would be you supply your own dance shoes/dance wear.

 

Self employed people do not get holiday pay.  They do not have to give any notice to take holidays but if a teacher is regurlaly not available during term time/performance times etc etc I would deem them to be unreliable and would not engage their services again.  Similarly in construction if a firm we engaged to for example do the air conditioning on a building project decided that their main man was going on holiday during a crucial period in the job and it held us up they would not be engaged again.

 

Adminstration time should be included in your hourly rate.  My contracts stated that the hourly rate paid to teachers included planning/preparing lessons and resources and attendance at one termly planning meeting.  However if you are being asked to attend the school to perform school admin tasks rather than your own (for example manning reception for an hour before class) then you should be paid for that.

 

Cancellations are a funny one.  In the construction industry if we turn up for a job and due to the clients fault can't start work we bill for the wasted time.  If notice is given that a job is delayed or cancelled we don't get paid (and wouldn't pay our subbies).  In the theatre school if a class was cancelled for example due to snow the teacher would be informed before they set out and would not be paid just as the school would not be paid as they would refund the students for the cancelled lesson.  If the class was cancleed because no one turned up then the teacher would be paid because the students would not receive a refund for not turning up.

 

Self employment is a HUGE headache and it gets worse the higher up the chain you go!

[Bluebird22]

Thank you for that Pictures! It is a huge headache, and it seems to be worse in the dancing world because the advice is just not available. My dad was a self employed property renovator for private landlords and he always tells me I'm doing things wrong but his decorating examples just don't seem to have an equivalent in the dance world and HMRC is just far far far too complex, the "are you self employed" quiz permanently rules that I am undefinable!

 

As for uniform I understand I am expected to provide suitable footwear etc but I meant more along the lines of dance school logo t shirts/jumpers etc

[Picturesinthefirelight]

I never expected my teachers to wear logo uniform. i offered them a hoody or t shirt each but I preferred there to be a distinction between teacher (non uniform) & student (uniform)

 

Seems a bit cheeky to me.

[Moomin]

An hour or two with an accountant would probably pay for itself if you dont already use one!

[Harwel]

I'm a self employed Pilates teacher and I'd never work for anyone else. But then I run my own business, not teaching in other businesses.

[Moomin]

Sorry probably misunderstood your question when you mentioned hmrc I thought you wanted to know whether you could claim a tax rebate for uniform etc along with the other things. If it is more about your 'employer' yes I would delete too!

[Bluebird22]

Oh it's just overall confusion as to what being self employed should actually entail! It seems there are a lot of blurred lines regarding when self employed becomes employed and what you can expect of a self employed person.

 

Im intrigued for my own clarity!

[taxi4ballet]

Anyone can become self-employed, but the HMRC regulations apply irrespective of the type of work/business - you could be a plumber, a childminder, a greengrocer or a dance teacher. Their rules deciding whether you are self-employed or an employee are the same.

 

As far as I am aware, - and I am a bit rusty so you do need to check with HMRC - a self-employed person has no holiday entitlement (although you can agree it as part of a specific contract between you and your client). You set your own hours and bill the organisation you have done the work for, and are responsible for your own tax and NI contributions. You can also engage and pay someone else to do the work instead of you. 

 

 

You are classed as an employee if (among other things):

you cannot set your own hours/days of work, 

or if you work for only one organisation.

 

As an employee you then have rights including paid holiday, minimum wage etc; and your employer is responsible for calculating your tax, NI and so on.

Edited September 21, 2016 by taxi4ballet

[alison]

Plus there's the thorny old issue of IR35: if you are working as a contractor for only one company, HMRC may deem that you are in fact an employee and that your "employer" is simply trying to avoid their responsibilities to pay NI and taxes for you:

 

https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/ir35

 

I agree with comments above about going to one of your local HMRC's free workshops: I learned a lot of useful things from one when I was starting out.  IIRC, workwear is not tax-deductible for the self-employed (although I would have assumed that if a company was providing a work uniform they should be bearing the cost of it, but I have read of instances where they expect the workers to pay for it).

 

Looking at the situation from a profession somewhat closer to mine:

- As for admin, that should be costed into your hourly rate or whatever you're charging - unless it can be regarded as above and beyond the call of duty, in which case I would make an additional charge.

- Your contract should include provision for (late) cancellation, on the basis that it might have prevented you from taking on other remunerated work.

- As I understand it, the terms of payment depend on whose contract was accepted last, yours or the company's.  You are entitled to charge interest on late payments, which are defined as anything beyond 30 days (see http://payontime.co.uk/), although getting too shirty on this, or even threatening with the small claims court or anything more serious, may of course not be beneficial to the working relationship.  I personally don't start getting too tetchy about this unless we go beyond 45 days, because I understand that some smaller concerns don't necessarily pay someone to deal with their accounts for more than a couple of days each month.

 

Not sure whether the above actually responds to what you were asking, but I hope it's of benefit to somebody!

[taxi4ballet]

IIRC, workwear is not tax-deductible for the self-employed (although I would have assumed that if a company was providing a work uniform they should be bearing the cost of it, but I have read of instances where they expect the workers to pay for it).

The rules are complex and are slightly different for those in the performing arts industry.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

logo workwear (uniform) is tax deductible as is PPE (safety boots & overalls) I would say that dance shoes should come under PPE as its as dangerous to dance in street shoes as it is for one of our engineers to not wear his steel toe caps.

[taxi4ballet]

Dance shoes don't, surprisingly, because it can be said that they can also be worn outside the work environment when dancing for pleasure. An exception would be something necessarily bought and altered for specific performances such as a pair of shoes dyed a particular colour which can't be used for anything else.

[Jan McNulty]

 

You are classed as an employee if (among other things):

you cannot set your own hours/days of work, 

or if you work for only one organisation.

 

As an employee you then have rights including paid holiday, minimum wage etc; and your employer is responsible for calculating your tax, NI and so on.

 

 

I am surprised by the criterion "if you work only for one organisation".  Not in the performing arts industry but I have known a number of contractors who have worked for one organisation for years.

 

Is it different if you have set yourself up as a company as "contract programmers" used to be advised?  I assume that then your company would be a sub-contractor to the main company?

[Picturesinthefirelight]

It's those type of people (only working for one organisation) that Hmrc have been cracking down on in recent years as they should really be employees with holiday & sickness pay & paying employee/employer NI contributions.

[Jan McNulty]

So those poor people are basically between a rock and a hard place?

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Well it's actuslly the employer who is hit usually for back payment of employer NI contributions. And if the "contractor" took them to tribunal they couod play stinky be awarded back sick & holiday pay.

[aileen]

Hmm, I think that quite a lot of so called freelancers would be regarded as employees by a tribunal or HMRC. It's a way of avoiding a lot of employee benefits including maternity rights and pension contributions. One of the distinguishing features of an employer-employee relationship is that organisation or person engaging the person has a high degree of control over how the person does his/her work. There's a lot of information on the HMRC website about this.

[taxi4ballet]

It's those type of people (only working for one organisation) that Hmrc have been cracking down on in recent years as they should really be employees with holiday & sickness pay & paying employee/employer NI contributions.

It's mainly to protect low-paid workers I think. HMRC frowns on businesses who make their staff register as self-employed when they aren't, and should be employees.

 

So for instance you get a job as a waiter. The owner of the restaurant tells you that you will have to register as self-employed and be responsible for your own tax and NI contributions. But if you have only the one job working in one restaurant, then the owner could sack you, change your hours, rate of pay etc whenever they felt like it. You would have no entitlement to holiday pay, sick pay, or any other employee benefits.

 

You aren't really self-employed at all - not in the same way as a jobbing gardener, or a freelance journalist would be.

 

The restaurant owner should put you on the payroll, and then you would have the same rights as other employees. They cannot insist that all their waiters are self-employed.