UK Teacher employment agencies | UK Teaching Contracts in Italy
Jun 14th 2017, 1:03 pm
#1
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 254
UK Teacher employment agencies | UK Teaching Contracts in Italy
I just wanted to share the following story that a teacher friend Mike recently told me, and ask if anyone has had a similar experience.
Last November John was taken on by Inglese per Tutti (made up names) a local private English language school. He was recruited online by the school but they then approached an agency in London to draw up the contract and manage the wages. The wage offered was €1,300 for 100 hours a month to be paid in sterling into a UK bank account. In the academic year before that John had worked for 5 months in a different area of Italy.
John is a really lovely guy and a good teacher but has a rather gungho ("don't talk to me about taxes, you'll just confuse me") attitude to his tax position and that is beginning to affect his co-teachers. He knows that in 2016 he was living and working in Italy for more than 6 months. It will be the same for 2017. Anyway, he says he's employed via the UK agency and they sort everything out for him.
Originally, John was taken on as a let's-see-how-it-goes-and-whether-there's-enough-work basis, now the owner of the school is saying to the British teachers that are (and have been) resident and working in Italy for some time (like my friend, who has a wife and 2.4 kids) that he will employ John in the same way next year and possibly take on another teacher using the same method. The teachers have realised that at least one of them will be looking at being offered zero hours next year.
So, in Sterling John's wage comes in at just under £10,000 p.a. so he pays no tax in the UK and is not paying tax in Italy despite living here for over 182 days a year. As the owner has pointed out to the other teachers, it's a lot cheaper for him to employ someone in that way. One of the braver teachers pointed out that John should actually be declaring and paying tax on his wage but the comment was brushed aside (it will probably be that teacher that will be the first to get the chop!)
So my friend Mike feels powerless to do anything. If he mentions it again he could risk his job and yet he feels it's unfair that fellow Brits are able to get the jobs but not have to play by the same rules.
Is this a common tale? Is it legal? What can be done?
Last November John was taken on by Inglese per Tutti (made up names) a local private English language school. He was recruited online by the school but they then approached an agency in London to draw up the contract and manage the wages. The wage offered was €1,300 for 100 hours a month to be paid in sterling into a UK bank account. In the academic year before that John had worked for 5 months in a different area of Italy.
John is a really lovely guy and a good teacher but has a rather gungho ("don't talk to me about taxes, you'll just confuse me") attitude to his tax position and that is beginning to affect his co-teachers. He knows that in 2016 he was living and working in Italy for more than 6 months. It will be the same for 2017. Anyway, he says he's employed via the UK agency and they sort everything out for him.
Originally, John was taken on as a let's-see-how-it-goes-and-whether-there's-enough-work basis, now the owner of the school is saying to the British teachers that are (and have been) resident and working in Italy for some time (like my friend, who has a wife and 2.4 kids) that he will employ John in the same way next year and possibly take on another teacher using the same method. The teachers have realised that at least one of them will be looking at being offered zero hours next year.
So, in Sterling John's wage comes in at just under £10,000 p.a. so he pays no tax in the UK and is not paying tax in Italy despite living here for over 182 days a year. As the owner has pointed out to the other teachers, it's a lot cheaper for him to employ someone in that way. One of the braver teachers pointed out that John should actually be declaring and paying tax on his wage but the comment was brushed aside (it will probably be that teacher that will be the first to get the chop!)
So my friend Mike feels powerless to do anything. If he mentions it again he could risk his job and yet he feels it's unfair that fellow Brits are able to get the jobs but not have to play by the same rules.
Is this a common tale? Is it legal? What can be done?
Last edited by Donna Noble; Jun 14th 2017 at 1:59 pm.
Jun 14th 2017, 2:22 pm
#3
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Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 2,513
Re: UK Teacher employment agencies | UK Teaching Contracts in Italy
Well, he works in Italy but is employed by a British company and is paid in sterling. He is resident in Italy - so must by law fill in an Italian tax return and pay the difference in taxes he doesnt pay in the UK to those he should be paying in Italy. The owner of the school is playing a more dangerous game, as he should be paying INPS in Italy, as he is being piad by Italians in euros and so he's being 'clever' with his intrastat. If its in the north itll end in tears. If its in the south it will probably come to a natural end with Brexit.
