Recommendation 13

The realities of contracting also mean that hiring organisations will likely not have the data required to identify and correct mistakes when workers have been incorrectly engaged on a self-employed basis. In particular, the hirer would not normally collect a worker’s National Insurance number if they are self-employed. However, if HMRC later judges that the worker should have been treated as employed, it needs the National Insurance number to identify their actual tax position. This means that when HMRC finds workers have been misclassified, it normally lacks the data to accurately calculate the additional taxes owed.23