I’m about to be laid off after working for the same company for 26 years – the only place I’ve ever worked. So im used to lots of stuff being taken care of by the employer – PAYE, National insurance etc.

I may have an opportunity to work with a couple of other companies – but as far as I know, none of them have any UK operations, so I would likely be the sole uk employee. Does anyone have any advice? Is this easy? Would the hassle factor involved be much like being self employed?

Will you be a full time employee, if so I would expect the company to do all the tax and NI stuff for you..

I’d be tempted to ask them if they’ll let you be a Contractor (and invoice them).

Once they understand RTI they might not want a single UK employee…

What @br suggests is interesting.

Will you be based in UK full time ? If not there could be other advantages in following @br’s suggestion

It depends.

A lot of multinationals have a UK entity for various reasons.

The Company I work for has around 200 employees but only 4 UK based. We are paid “normal” salaries with PAYE etc. through the UK part of the Company.

However, even if there no UK employees then they would still have the Uk registered part of the Company for contracting purposes.

I did this some years ago, I was the sole UK employee of a Dutch company. They didn’t want all the hassle of the UK system, so I went self-employed. They paid me a bit more than we initially agreed as compensation. It went fairly well, but when I found myself unemployed I couldn’t claim a penny, in spite of working and paying my stamp for the previous 30-odd years, my 2 years self-employment ruled me out of unemployment benefit. I lost my temper in the job centre and was asked to leave and come back when I had calmed down!

The company I have in mind would be reasonably small. I would probably be the only uk employee. I would be based in the uk.

@failed as I understood it if you pay your NI you can claim jobseekers allowance and other welfare like housing. Is that not the case ?

OP there are plenty of companies who will organise all the paye for your employer or as above look at self employed route

Will you be a full time employee, if so I would expect the company to do all the tax and NI stuff for you..

not necesarily

for us – you would go onto an international contract , be paid out of panama and the tax and NI in your home country is your responsibility. Your tax and other necessary payments in your country of employment is the responsibility of the employer.

You end up with no UK employment rights.

Be very sure what your signing up to . Its not simply that your based in the uk and uk rights apply its where your working and where your contracts based that matters

Edit – missed that you would actually be working in the uk …. that changes things id guess.