Presumption of self-employment for LLP members to be axed from 2014 if Government proposals go ahead

Law firms structured as limited liability partnerships (LLPs) may be liable for increased national insurance contributions (NICs), under Government plans to rein in tax lost to self-employed partners.

If passed, the National Insurance Contributions Bill, formally announced in the Queen's Speech on 8 May, would remove the presumption of self-employment for LLP members from April 2014. 

Most LLPs are currently taxed as a partnership and salaried partner members – who technically may be classed as employees by their firm – are classed as self-employed, allowing firms to pay less tax.

For a salaried partner, a switch from presumed self-employed status to employee status could land the firm with a 13.9% rise in NICs. 

A firm with 50 salaried partners – who are each paid £200,000 a year, but are classed as members rather than employees – might, for example, be liable to pay £1.4m more in NICs under the proposed change.

However, with law firms operating a variety of different levels of partner within LLPs, there is still a lack of clarity over exactly which definition of 'self-employed' HM Revenue & Customs will use.

"One of the areas that will need to be clarified is the criteria an individual would have to satisfy to be classed as self-employed by the Revenue – there are currently grey areas," said Clive Greenwood, joint head of the partnership and LLPs group at Lewis Silkin.

"Different firms will have different categories of partner with different rights under the LLP agreement in relation to capital contributions, risk, profit share, and participation in losses.  

"Law firms will have to get out their members' agreements and ask whether they think that all members can satisfy whatever criteria are established to pass the 'self-employed' test."

jonathan-haley-farrer-coFarrer & Co professional practices partner Jonathan Haley (pictured, right) added: "The move has come as no surprise. A very significant amount of revenue is currently being lost through the NIC saving.

"For some firms, it may even have been the driving force (or at least a deciding factor) for their LLP conversion. Removal of the presumption could result in a significantly increased NIC bill for some."

The bill, which is designed to reduce NIC costs to small businesses, will also give all businesses and charities a £2,000 employment allowance towards NIC costs.

The Government says the bill would allow around 450,000 UK employers – about one third of all businesses – to avoid paying employer NICs completely. 

Other legislation that will be tackled this coming year, as outlined in the Queen's Speech, includes an immigration bill, making it easier to deport people who do not have a right to stay in the UK, and a pensions bill, which will simplify the current basic state pension and earnings-related top up structure by replacing it with a single tier system.

An offender rehabilitation bill, meanwhile, will see offenders who serve sentences of less than a year put under supervision for 12 months after their release.

The new legislative programme comes as research by legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell has shown that the number of new laws introduced by the Government rose for the first time in three years in 2012. 

According to the study, efforts to cut red tape have decreased, with 1,466 new laws introduced by the Coalition Government in the past year, compared with the 1,355 introduced in 2011, an 8% rise.  

Significant new laws introduced over the last year include the Financial Services Act 2012 and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.