CR001 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:40 pm
Regarding your question on director, I plan to set up a company for the insurance broking business and plan to be the director. Any thoughts if there is a way to do the insurance broking business without breaching visa rules?
You cannot do that. You can only work in a secondary job through a company (not your own) on PAYE for 20 hours per week and it must be in the same SOC as your main tier 2 job.
If you want to do your own business, you should consider a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa.
Hi CR001. I'd like some clarity on this too.
The restriction against self-employment as a form of supplementary employment while on Tier 2 - can you please elaborate on where this is specified?
My understanding is that this is allowed.
Under the interpretation section of the Immigration Rules, employment is defined as:
“employment” unless the contrary intention appears, includes paid and unpaid employment, paid and unpaid work placements undertaken as part of a course or period of study, self employment and engaging in business or any professional activity.
While self-employment is:
“Self-Employed” means an applicant is registered as self-employed with HM Revenue & Customs, or is employed by a company of which the applicant is a controlling shareholder.
Therefore is it correct that supplementary employment includes self-employment, and self-employment includes both self-employment and being a controlling shareholder in a business?
So there is no requirement for supplementary employment to be PAYE, and self employment is permissable?
I think where the guidance is unclear is when any self employment (as defined under immigration rules, not tax or employment law) is carried out for a company that a Tier 2 migrant has set up and is registered as a director. If the main work that the migrant performs is in the same SOC code as their CoS, rather than undertaking director duties, that might be permissable?
E.g. an accountant on Tier 2 has the opportunity to take on his own clients (so it's the same SOC code). This extra work is outside of normal working hours and does not take more than 20 hours a week. So he sets up a limited company for tax purposes, and either he declares dividend income and/or becomes an employee as PAYE, or declares self employment income as a sole trader for his supplementary accounting work.
Furthermore, since "employment" includes "engaging in business or any professional activity" I would argue that running a business (the limited company) is also allowed, just like self employment - because with either, he is still doing accountanting work.
I think the only issue is the director vs. accountant titles (different SOC codes). But let's say he files a company tax return each year and that's the extent of his duties as a director. Would you therefore say that he is actually working as an accountant for his supplementary employment, rather than a director? Another way to think about it is that director duties are statuatory (file company tax return etc) rather than related to employment.
I know this is a real grey area so all thoughts and perspectives are appreciated!
