Skip to main content
Practical employment law information to support your business, from Clover HR

Search

Setting up a business involves complying with a range of legal requirements. Find out which ones apply to you and your new enterprise.

Every business needs to be aware of its obligations under minimum wage and equal pay laws, as well as recent pensions auto-enrolment changes.

What particular regulations do specific types of business (such as a hotel, or a printer, or a taxi firm) need to follow? We explain some of the key legal issues to consider for 200 types of business.

While poor governance can bring serious legal consequences, the law can also protect business owners and managers and help to prevent conflict.

You must comply with legal restrictions on employees' working hours and time off, or risk claims, enforcement action and even prosecution.

The right employment policies are an essential part of effective staff management. Make sure any policy is clear and well communicated to employees.

Whether you want to raise finance, join forces with someone else, buy or sell a business, it pays to be aware of the legal implications.

While sick employees need to be treated fairly, you need to ensure that 'sickness' is not being used as cover for unauthorised absence.

Marketing matters. Marketing drives sales for businesses of all sizes by ensuring that customers think of their brand when they want to buy.

Most pregnant employees are entitled to maternity leave and maternity pay, while new fathers are entitled to paternity leave and paternity pay.

Commercial disputes can prove time-consuming, stressful and expensive, but having robust legal agreements can help to prevent them from occurring.

As well as undermining morale, illegal discrimination can lead to workplace grievances. Employee discrimination is covered by the Equality Act 2010.

Whether your business owns or rents premises, your legal liabilities can be substantial. Commercial property law is complex, but you can avoid common pitfalls.

Home, remote and lone workers are becoming increasingly commonplace. Key issues include communication and how to manage and motivate people remotely.

With information and sound advice, living up to your legal responsibilities to safeguard your employees, customers and visitors need not be difficult or costly.

The right approach to consulting with and providing information to your employees can improve employee motivation and performance.

As information technology continues to evolve, legislation must also change. It affects everything from data protection and online selling to internet policies for employees.

Disciplinary and grievance issues can be a major burden to employers. Putting in place and following the right procedures is essential.

Following the right dismissal and redundancy procedures helps protect your business and minimise the risk of a legal dispute at tribunal.

Intellectual property (IP) isn't solely relevant to larger businesses or those involved in developing innovative new products: all products have IP.

Employment tribunal claims are a worrying prospect for any employer. A tribunal case is a no-win situation – even if the claim is unjustified.

Knowing how and when you plan to sell or relinquish control of your business can help you to make better decisions and achieve the best possible outcome.

From bereavement, wills, inheritance, separation and divorce to selling a house, personal injury and traffic offences, learn more about your personal legal rights.

National Insurance rises are "anti-small business" says FSB

7 September 2021

Prime minister Boris Johnson has unveiled plans to increase National Insurance contributions in order to fund health and social care - but business groups say it could derail the UK's recovery from COVID.

From April 2022, National Insurance contributions for employees and employers will rise by 1.25%. In a further blow for directors of limited companies, the prime minister also revealed that tax on share dividends will go up by 1.25%.

The government's social care plan will come into effect in 2023. The new rules mean that:

  • From October 2023, no-one will have to pay more than £86,000 for care over their lifetime;
  • The state will fully cover the care costs of anyone with assets of less than £20,000;
  • Those with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 will receive some means-tested state support.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has described the tax hikes as "an anti-jobs, anti-small business, anti-start-up manifesto breach". It said the government should now increase the Employment Allowance to mitigate the damaging impacts of these hikes on small firms.

FSB national chair Mike Cherry said: "These hikes will have business owners and sole traders feeling demoralised at the point when they're trying to recover from the most difficult 18 months of their professional lives. For those thinking about starting up, they send completely the wrong message.

"Business owners who have done all they can to retain and support their staff during the pandemic are now being punished for that loyalty with an £11bn increase in NICs, which essentially serve as a jobs tax. This regressive levy hits employers and sole traders without meaningful regard for how their business is performing. And this increase will stifle recruitment, investment and efforts to upskill and improve productivity in the years ahead.

"At the same time those running companies, many of whom were left out of pandemic support measures, face a fresh assault on dividend revenue."

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has warned that the tax rises could hamper the UK's economic recovery. Suren Thiru, BCC head of economics, said: "Businesses strongly oppose a rise in National insurance contributions as it will be a drag anchor on jobs growth at an absolutely crucial time … This rise will impact the wider economic recovery by landing significant costs on firms when they are already facing a raft of new cost pressures and dampen the entrepreneurial spirit needed to drive the recovery."

Responding to the increase in dividend tax, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) said that the "government is making it almost impossible to work as a freelancer". IPSE has pointed out that freelancers working through limited companies have already been excluded from support during the pandemic and have also been hit by the changes to IR35 self-employed taxation.

"To limited company directors … this is salt in a year of wounds," said Andy Chamberlain, IPSE director of policy. "The increase in National Insurance for sole traders will also be deeply damaging to the wider self-employed sector … These changes will squeeze the battered self-employed community - limited companies and sole traders alike."

The latest research by the Institute of Directors (IoD) has found that 73% of business owners are already concerned about potential increases to salary-related business costs. Speaking on the BBC Today programme, the IoD's chief economist Kitty Ussher said: "It just seems such an extraordinary time given everything that British business has gone through in the pandemic, to be facing an extra cost of employing people."

She added: "Nobody likes taxes, but the government has already said it's going to raise corporation tax, which is a tax that companies pay out of profit so if you're doing well, it gets paid. The problem with National Insurance is that it's a kind of flat cost, so it's paid regardless of whether firms are having a good year or a bad year."

Stay up-to-date with business advice and news

Sign up to this lively and colourful newsletter for new and more established small businesses.