FAQs – The Hudson Contract Service

A. It’s what the judiciary says about us – rather than what anyone else says about us – that makes the BIG difference and sets us apart from every other CIS contract and payroll service provider. No other company has case law in its name. So no-one else is able to give you the same degree of legal surety as Hudson Contract.

A. We are very proud of our legal record and will continue to defend the integrity of our contract whenever it is challenged. If that means another judicial hearing, so be it. This is what our clients expect and pay us to do, and we will never waver from that responsibility.

A. We take full responsibility in employment, tax law and status law for each and every subbie who signs one of our contracts. We verify the UTR number and submit the monthly tax returns. Should we ever have to defend the status of our contracts at a Commissioner’s hearing or an employment tribunal, we pay ALL costs, in full. Some of our competitors try to sell you insurance for this. With Hudson Contract, you don’t need insurance – it’s automatically part of the service.

A. You’re legally entitled to move your subbies onto CIS so long as you recognise some of them – at least – may have employment rights. This means you need to address the issues sensitively and correctly. Hudson Contract will guide you through the process, step by step, to ensure it happens smoothly and successfully.

A. It’s an open arrangement and you can walk away from it whenever you want, without penalty. We know our clients need flexibility, so that’s what we deliver.

A. Neither you nor Hudson Contract are employers. Our role is to legitimise each operative’s freelance status in tax and employment law, so the employment responsibility is removed from your firm. Once that process is complete, your firm can safely engage the operatives on a self-employed basis.

A. We have over 1,500 construction clients nationwide. To date, we have contracted and paid over 94,000 individuals under CIS, all of whom have been verified and accepted by HMRC.

A. No. We do not seek to influence freelance operatives who are contracted and neither do we recruit freelance operatives for our clients. Our legal standing was endorsed by the General Commissioners in 2002.

A. Every individual has the fundamental right to sell his/her services on a self-employed basis, and it is this right which Hudson Contract seeks to protect. We have created the correct legal mechanism to enable construction firms to access this extremely important labour resource without fear. That is why our contract reflects our legal responsibilities at all times. Our business is born out of contract law. It is absolutely not reliant – in any shape or form – on any kind of loophole in the CIS regulations.

A. Our standard fee is from £16 per operative per week. Although the fee is charged to you – the client – it can be offset against an operative’s earnings.

A. Yes, each week by text, plus a detailed statement posted at the end of every month.

A. Our banking partners – Barclays PLC – deliver thousands of individual payments to freelance operatives’ bank accounts every day. Provided our clients process the payment instructions at the appropriate time (and so long as freelance operatives keep us informed of any bank account changes), Hudson Contract guarantees delivery of their wages on the agreed contracted day. In more than fourteen years we have never missed a single payment.

A. The Agency Workers Directive is a piece of European legislation that gives agency workers the same rights as employees after twelve weeks. Basically, everyone paid through agencies or umbrella companies becomes eligible for full employment rights. The good news is that freelancers engaged by Hudson Contract are genuinely self-employed – and therefore exempt – so our clients are unaffected.

A. Hudson Contract are tax and employment law specialists, as opposed to insurance salesmen. Moreover, have you ever managed to claim from an individual’s insurance rather than through your own company policy? The answer will be no – and with good reason: you are the end user and control the working environment; you have a safety policy, method statements and risk assessments; in some cases you will be working under the control of a principle contractor who has all of this and more. To cut through all the legislation and layers of control, to hold an individual responsible is almost impossible. We don’t want to sell people something they don’t need.