SPM181500 - Paying and Recovering - SMP/SAP/SPP/ShPP/SPBP: who is the employer

Although the legislation makes it clear that the person who is liable to pay the secondary (employer) Class 1 NICs is the employer for SMP/SAP/SPP/ShPP/SPBP purposes, it may not always be easy to:

• identify the liable employer, or
• decide if an organisation is a:

• single business, or
• collection of separate businesses.

It will sometimes be necessary to consider other factors such as:

• who the employee’s contract of service is with
• who pays the employee
• whether employees are moved from one part of the organisation to another
• whether there is a bank account for each part of an organisation or a single one for the organisation as a whole, or
• whether there is a profit and loss account for each part of an organisation or only one for the organisation as a whole.