Freelance work, earnings requirement and ILR

[Trevor1809]

I work as a freelance engineer through a limited company. For anybody who know what IR35 is the work is usually outside IR35. Company year ended 31 Dec 2017 and accountant is preping accounts ready for wife's ILR application in May 2018. I will have the P60s in time for the application. My last contract finished in December. Annual profits are well over the £18600 limit. My salary, wife's salary and pension take me well over the £18600 limit without the profit being taken into account.

Now looking for a new contract and I have the possibility of working for a Government agency but that will be inside IR35. That means I can't work through my own limited company and 3 months before the ILR I will have to work PAYE through the agent or an umbrella company. In essence I will change employers 3 months before the ILR application. How will this affect the application? Must I show 6 months payslips through the same employer of can they be with different employers. There is cash in the company to continue paying me a salary if I need to say that I am still with the same employer. But since I am classed as self employed by the Home Office but not by HMRC should the visa application even take wage slips into account? It seems if you are a freelancer you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Rather ironically there is another job in the pipeline with the Home Office no less.

[rasg]

If you are self employed you will be relying on the latest set of accounts available or an average of the previous two years.

 

When my wife went for a settlement in February 2016 I used my accounts that ran from April 2014 - March 2015. Her first FLR in September 2016 used accounts from April 2015 - March 2016.

 

The way I understand it is if you have a limited company you are an employee of that company and not self employed but I am not an accountant.

 

All I did was send the requirements to the accountant and let him do the job. Well worth the £100.

[Trevor1809]

After the FLR I actually changed the financial year as it used to run April to March. With an ILR in May I would not have got the year end accounts done between 31 March and the ILR application. I coudn't see UKVI accepting accounts over one year old but as you say that is the rules. I wasn't prepared to risk it.

It also seems odd that you could be self employed and not actually working but have previous accounts exceeding the limit but an employee made redundant but exceeded the annual limit on previous earning would fail as they wouldn't be able to provide 6 month's worth of pay slips.

" The way I understand it is if you have a limited company you are an employee of that company and not self employed but I am not an accountant. " Correct in the eyes of HMRC but not in the eyes of UKVI bizarrely.

[rasg]

3 hours ago, Trevor1809 said:

After the FLR I actually changed the financial year as it used to run April to March. With an ILR in May I would not have got the year end accounts done between 31 March and the ILR application. I coudn't see UKVI accepting accounts over one year old but as you say that is the rules. I wasn't prepared to risk it.

 

" The way I understand it is if you have a limited company you are an employee of that company and not self employed but I am not an accountant. " Correct in the eyes of HMRC but not in the eyes of UKVI bizarrely.

Strange. When I give my accountant my spreadsheets he can give me an idea of my financial obligations in a few hours and prepared a set of accounts in two or three days. Many of my bank statements were close to two years old when I submitted my wife's settlement visa purely because of the date we submitted. If you rely on an average of two years accounts they can be a lot older and it's not a problem.

 

3 hours ago, Trevor1809 said:

 

It also seems odd that you could be self employed and not actually working but have previous accounts exceeding the limit but an employee made redundant but exceeded the annual limit on previous earning would fail as they wouldn't be able to provide 6 month's worth of pay slips.

There are anomalies all over the place. If you are self employed you cannot rely on savings to bring your earnings up to the financial requirement.