Contracting and limited companies

Steedie

Steedie

Steedie

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Joined
29 Jun 2004
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Oxfordshire
Hey all,

Starting a contracting role next week and am in the process of setting up a limited company to be paid through.

I'm in two minds whether to do all the admin and paperwork myself each month and risk messing it up and getting investigated :p or pay an accounting company to do it for. Typically works out to be £120 a month.

I'm sure there are contractors on here or people who in the past have done it, and was just wondering what you did and who you used? Clearsky and SJD seem to be the two I'm looking at if I go down the route

Any feedback is appreciated :)

Thanks guys
 
I saw those, but they refer to umbrella companies, which I'm not interested in as you lose a lot of money on your take home. It's more convenient but you earn less. Thanks though
 
It's a doddle, I think I paid my accountant £45 to set the firm up the use Xero for invoicing (£12 per month) then the accountant does all the returns and the monthly payroll.

£120 a month is far too much
 
It's not overly hard to do the admin youself. Just double check everything before you confirm.

However using an accountant may save you some money as they tend to know every little thing that can be exploited.

£120 seems overkill though.
 
Depends how complex your numbers are. I tend to have only one contract on the go at any one time so I do it all myself. If I had several contracts running concurrently with associated invoices and receipts I'd probably pay someone else to do it.
 
Yeah it will only be the one contract at a time. So looks like I'll be doing it myself then for the most part, although I might hire an accountant to do the finer details
 
If you use Xero to it's full extent you can invoice and reconcile your accounts hour by hour as it links to your bank account, however I've done mine by a simple spreadsheet and copying over my bank statements.
 
Mynight said:
However using an accountant may save you some money as they tend to know every little thing that can be exploited.
Click to expand...

surely you use them for a month or two and you'll then know those things too - then just do it yourself... (assuming you're going to be at the same place for a little while longer and nothing else is changing month to month)
 
I have just started contracting too although using an umbrella but I did have a limited company a few years ago and I am planning to set one up again

You want to use an accountant, they will save you money and also you should be able to give your contracts to them to see if they are IR35 compliant or not, that's what I have done in the past for peace of mind.

£120 is too much for the accountancy, £80 per month is a more reasonable figure.
 
I tend to work higher value contracts one at a time and just do all of the accounting and invoicing myself as a sole trader. It's not particularly difficult once you get into the swing of it -- you just need to make sure that you're accounting for the time you'll be spending on admin within your rates, as that'll be a decent chunk of unbillable hours per month.
 
I used a ~100 quid a month accountant when I was contracting, not a lot considering the amount I was invoicing. Nixon Williams I think it was, they were very good to deal with.
 
Aren't the government about to close a lot of these loopholes which contractors use through the use of umbrella companies who, shall we say, "overstate" [abuse] things like travel and sustenance and other such costs in order to reduce said contractors tax bills?

I'm sure I heard Osborne mention something in the budget speech?

Might make it more difficult for some of these sharky umbrella firms who just abuse the system. I am all for genuine costs being offset, but clearly there are firms that take the biscuit.
 
currently pay £80 a month for my accountant, does all the things for me and just tells me how much money I need to transfer into my account each week. :p

reason why I keep my accountant, I don't really know how it all works. latest example no NI contributions required for the £2000 or something like it ;)
 
BDEE said:
Aren't the government about to close a lot of these loopholes which contractors use through the use of umbrella companies who, shall we say, "overstate" [abuse] things like travel and sustenance and other such costs in order to reduce said contractors tax bills?

I'm sure I heard Osborne mention something in the budget speech?

Might make it more difficult for some of these sharky umbrella firms who just abuse the system. I am all for genuine costs being offset, but clearly there are firms that take the biscuit.
Click to expand...

I never claimed anything that wasn't 100% legit (I was limited though). I have heard of some umbrellas that totally take the **** and basically offset loads of fake expenses. Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, than can and have been busted by HMRC.
 
mid_gen said:
I never claimed anything that wasn't 100% legit (I was limited though). I have heard of some umbrellas that totally take the **** and basically offset loads of fake expenses. Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, than can and have been busted by HMRC.
Click to expand...

Travel and subsistence is legal for contractors but that's being closed as of April 2016.
 
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