Contractors to quiz the taxman in real-time

Contractor businesses are being invited to pose questions to the taxman in a series of live debates about being self-employed or running a limited company.

Hosted by HM Revenue & Customs, the online webinars will focus on seven different topics related to self-employment, with the aim of helping individuals understand their administrative and tax obligations.

There are two formats: pre-recorded presentations of half an hour to be available anytime, and live webinars – where participants have an extra 30 minutes for a live Q&A with the HMRC presenter.

Although the interactive sessions are free to join, would-be participants must register in advance by email, or over the phone, where they can also enquire about alternative dates.

‘You, self-employment & HMRC’ is already underway (but runs until February 28^th), and is available to join alongside ‘Business expenses and capital allowances’ (until February 29^th).

The first in four scheduled streamings of ‘Limited Companies – An Overview,’ starts today (at 10.00am), and is followed by ‘First Steps as an Employer’, ‘CIS for contractors’ and ‘How VAT works.’

Inviting individuals to sign-up, tax officials said that neither HMRC nor its webinar platform supplier CITRIX will “ask for or retain any information about people or businesses.”