United Kingdom - Tax Guide for Freelance Contractors

Nationals of the EU/EEA Member States and Switzerland are able to work without restriction in the UK, except for citizens of the two most recent members Bulgaria and Romania.

Citizens from the countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004, except Cyprus and Malta, also called the A 8 countries (i.e. Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) have to register under the Worker Registration Scheme if they wish to work in the UK for more than one month. The Worker Registration Scheme monitors how many citizens of these countries are coming to work in the UK, the type of work they are doing and the impact this may have on the British economy. After a continuous period of 12 months employment workers from the A8 countries are no longer required to be registered. If the period of employment is interrupted, the worker must start a new job within 30 days and re-register for it to be treated as continuous employment.

Bulgarian and Romanian citizens do not need permission under the immigration rules to enter or remain to live in the UK, but if they wish to work they need to find an employer who applies for a work permit letter of approval from the UK Border Agency. Once this has been issued, they have to apply for an accession worker card. The accession worker card is linked to a specific employer and job. If a Romanian or Bulgarian citizen wants to change job, a new card has to be obtained. Approvals under the work permit arrangements are generally only given for skilled jobs and where suitably qualified resident labour is unavailable to fill the vacancy. However, the work permit arrangements also include the Sector Based Scheme under which a quota of permits may be issued for lower skilled jobs in the food processing industry.
There are a few exceptions to the requirement of obtaining a work permit and an accession worker card, for example the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme and the Highly Skilled Workers Programme.

Citizens from all other countries need to go through a full work permit and residence permit application under the new points-based system for immigration which has not been fully implemented yet. Categories include highly skilled workers, investors, entrepreneurs or post-study workers (Tier 1); sponsored skilled workers with a job offer (Tier 2) and sponsored temporary workers (Tier 5 Temporary workers).

Guidance on the Worker Registration Scheme is available from the website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk.