Am I employed or self-employed if I work through an agency in construction?

It depends on how you actually work, not what your contract says. If you are told how, when and where to work, use the agency's tools and cannot send a substitute, HMRC is likely to treat you as employed. Genuine subcontractors control their own work, carry their own risk and can be substituted.

The questions that matter

• Control: who decides how the work is done, and when.
• Substitution: can you send someone else, at your cost?
• Risk: do you bear the cost of bad work and chase your own payment?
• Equipment: do you supply your own tools and materials?
• Ongoing obligation: does the agency have to offer work and are you obliged to accept it?

There are also special tax rules for agency workers who are subject to supervision, direction or control, which can treat them as employees even when the contract says otherwise.

Worked comparison

Checking your position

HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool gives a result HMRC will stand behind if the information you give is accurate. Use it with your real working arrangements, not the contract wording.

Why it matters

If you are treated as self-employed but should have been on payroll, HMRC can go back for tax and National Insurance, with interest, and the contractor or agency can be liable too.

What to do

1. Read the contract, then compare it with what really happens on site.
2. Run the HMRC status tool and keep the result.
3. Ask the agency how it treats you for payroll.
4. If the answer is unclear, have the arrangement reviewed before your next tax return.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a CIS card or UTR proves you are self-employed.
• Using self-employed status to avoid holiday pay or payroll.
• Not keeping evidence of how you actually work.

Sources: GOV.UK: Check Employment Status for Tax