When you add an employee, you choose their type. This is not just a label: it changes how National Insurance and pay are handled, so it is worth choosing the right one.
Permanent employee
A regular employee with a fixed working pattern, paid each pay period. Most permanent employees use National Insurance category A.
Company director
Directors have National Insurance worked out over an annual earnings period rather than period by period, because their pay is often irregular. You can use the standard, or alternative, method during the year, with a recalculation on the annual basis at year end. HMRC booklet CA44 covers the detail.
Apprentice
An apprentice under the age of 25 uses National Insurance category H. The employer pays no secondary National Insurance on their earnings up to the Apprentice Upper Secondary Threshold, which for the 2026 to 2027 tax year is £967 a week, or £50,270 a year. Above that the employer pays the standard 15%.
Off-payroll worker
An off-payroll worker provides services through an intermediary, such as their own limited company, but is treated as an employee for tax under the off-payroll working, or IR35, rules. The deemed employer operates PAYE on their pay, deducting Income Tax and employee National Insurance. The thresholds that decide who is responsible changed from 6 April 2026.
CIS subcontractor
A subcontractor under the Construction Industry Scheme has a deduction taken from the labour part of their payments and passed to HMRC. The standard rate is 20% for a registered and verified subcontractor, 30% if they are not registered or cannot be verified, and 0% if they hold gross payment status. Materials are excluded from the deduction.
Casual or zero-hours worker
A casual or zero-hours worker has irregular hours and no fixed working pattern, and is paid by the shifts they work. They are still an employee on PAYE, and are flagged as an irregular payment so that HMRC does not treat a gap between payments as the employee having left.
Get started
You choose the type when you add an employee, in People > Employee list > Add employee. Not signed in yet? Log in at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/auth/login