Friday 12 September 2025 - BSIA Comms
PAYE Compliance in the Private Security Industry
Are your security workers being taxed correctly?
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is stepping up efforts to ensure tax compliance in the private security sector and your business could be affected.
Working with the Security Industry Authority (SIA), HMRC has uncovered widespread fraud, tax evasion, and non-compliance across the industry. Criminals are infiltrating supply chains with seemingly legitimate companies that exploit workers and dodge tax, keeping deductions meant for Income Tax and National Insurance.
This isn’t just about tax, it’s about protecting your business, your workers, and the integrity of the industry.
HMRC has written a compliance alert to companies that provide private security services, to include companies approved under the SIA’s Approved Contractor Scheme as well as other companies operating in the private sector, including those providing security labour.
What you need to know:
The typical arrangements for security workers are such that HMRC expects they will be employed for tax purposes. As such security workers should ordinarily be on the payroll, with Income Tax and NICs properly accounted for and paid to us. So please take these steps:
1 Check to ensure security workers are correctly registered for PAYE and NICs.
2 Make sure their pay fully accounts for Income Tax and NICs.
3 If other parties provide you with security workers, check who needs to operate PAYE on the workers’ earnings. It could be you, or another security company, agency or recruitment company.
Why it matters:
By tackling non-compliance, HMRC aims to:
Act now
Don’t risk penalties or reputational damage. Review your PAYE arrangements today.
For more information on PAYE and payroll for employers see PAYE and payroll for employers: Introduction to PAYE - GOV.UK