Self-employment and taxes and EU CSI requirement

Ok, not sure if this should be in the employment or the taxes section....

My prior employer has offered me a contract to work remotely for a few hours a week for several months.  It's called a "recall appointment" (I'm retired from there) and they would pay my salary into my US bank account, doing all the usual USA tax withholdings, etc., as I set them up.

Since I now live in the UK, I would (I assume) need to pay taxes. Would I need to set up a payment for National Insurance as well?  I've done some preliminary perusing of the HMRC website and it seems I would be a "sole trader" if anything?

More importantly, would working up to 19 hours per week qualify me as "self employed" for the CSI considerations of our being here on my EU passport?

Your employer cannot over-ride the rights you would have if you are an employed worker. This issue is currently costing Uber millions of pounds/dollars.

If you are engaged on your own account (for example you could substitute another worker); why and what would the engager of the work withhold?

Your employer cannot over-ride the rights you would have if you are an employed worker. This issue is currently costing Uber millions of pounds/dollars.

If you are engaged on your own account (for example you could substitute another worker); why and what would the engager of the work withhold?

Pay.

It's working with highly sensitive personnel information. So specialized that they can't find anyone else with the needed skills to do it after looking for a few months. So I'm not quite following you.  I would be a direct employee of the organization, as far as the organization is concerned - on a short-term contract (one year, with possibility of extensions). But working in the UK instead of the USA, on my own schedule with my daily tasks set as I see fit, as long as the finished product meets the organizations timeline and standards. They would consider me an employee, not a contractor. 

My question is would the UK government consider me a self-employed person, or is working for a US employer with no other presence in the UK even allowed?  I would assume I'd report any earnings to the UK govmt as earned in the UK when it came time to file my UK taxes, along with my pension income. But I'm stuck at the point of knowing if this would qualify as "self-employment" as far as the UK is concerned.

I know this may not be you want to hear, but if you are employed, your employer cannot ignore the laws of the country where you reside (England or Scotland). You would be required under the laws of the United Kingdom to have a locally compliant employment contract; giving you paid holidays, maternity/paternity rights, redundancy rights, auto-enrolled pension plan, statutory sick pay and so on. The employer would need to pay UK PAYE and consider if it has UK corporate tax reporting issues. The employer cannot simply ignore the laws of a country where it chooses to hire an employee. In terns of tax & NIC withholding, the employer might consider a "direct payment scheme" (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/when-and-how-an-employee-operates-paye-on-their-employment-income); but this will require additional monthly administration so it is likely that the employer will want to use an accountant or payroll agency to assist them.

Thanks. So self-employed it is then!

So self-employed it is then!

Well! It's not quite that simple. HMRC have the power to decide unilaterally that work is employment, not self-employment as claimed, and charge the company for owed tax and national insurance.
Whether they would do so with an overseas company, I don't know, but it might be worth checking out.
Things they look at to make a decision include who provides tools of the trade, who chooses when you work, whether you can sub-contract and also if you work for more than one company.

Yep, will definitely check out before doing it. The LAST thing I want to do is run afoul of HMRC.

The work is to do, how and when I do it is up to me (other than general guidelines as to when the finished product is due to them).  I can't farm the work out to someone else, no, due to confidentiality issues. I can work for whomever I choose,  basically. But I'll run it all by HMRC before going there....

At the least you'll want to arrange Direct Payment; monthly...how are you going to withhold? At the worst the company will have a PE & owe UK corporation tax & VAT. Get the company to share with you the advice that they receive.