Umbrella company for contract role

Associate
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quick question, what happens on bank holidays when you can meet your contract hours for the week because your work place is closed?

request to get paid?
 
Associate
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why not get a limited company and you're the director rather then umbrella?
i did the maths for me and i get quite a bit more doing it through my own Ltd. than umbrella :)

what are the real difference?

back to the question if you know the answer, say i'm contracted 35 hours, if i miss a day then i cannot make that 35 hours.

cheers
 
Soldato
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You guys have to be unbelievably careful when it comes to IR35 and Personal Service companies, especially when setting up your own limited company and your sole contract is to one employer. Some of these companies tell you all these ways you can save tax when if you actually look at the legislation it's only in strict circumstances.
 
Soldato
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what are the real difference?

back to the question if you know the answer, say i'm contracted 35 hours, if i miss a day then i cannot make that 35 hours.

cheers

Ask your manager or umbrella company?

I would use an FSCA approved company who have a standard code of conduct and a real proper audit of the umbrella companies. Some companies belong to all sorts of crazy made up associations and affiliations!

On the issue of umbrella company fees often these are closer than people think. Some companies will show the fee at a reduced amount as there is a tax saving (20% or 40% depending on your tax band) and this makes company A look cheaper than company B which isn't necessarily the case!
 
Soldato
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Okay, put it this way - after speaking a large number of more senior tax officials than myself in People Services, I've been told about umbrella schemes that promise pretty low effective tax rates but when you look at their structure, they've really not found a hole in the legislation and it's only a matter of time until HMRC come down on them like a ton of bricks. Tax avoidance schemes must be registered and why do you think that is? So HMRC can track if they're being abused by companies like this.
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
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what are the real difference?

back to the question if you know the answer, say i'm contracted 35 hours, if i miss a day then i cannot make that 35 hours.

cheers

You don't get paid for them, so whilst a normal week is 35 hours, at 7 hours a day on a bank hol the company will most likely just pay you for 28 hours that week.

Pitfalls of being a contractor, public holidays can be your enemy :p

Going limited company is more hassle but you get to keep more of your money.
 
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You don't get paid for them, so whilst a normal week is 35 hours, at 7 hours a day on a bank hol the company will most likely just pay you for 28 hours that week.

Pitfalls of being a contractor, public holidays can be your enemy :p

Going limited company is more hassle but you get to keep more of your money.


Yep, if you aren't in then you dont get paid. You could speak to them and ask to do your hours over 4 days instead, they might go for that if you are really needed to do it.

limited company can be a good money saver, it can also be an admin nightmare (the sooner 5 years is over and i can get rid of loads of paperwork the better!).

The really good returning umbrella's are all being registered as tax avoidance schemes which you need to admit to being in. At the moment this means nothing, but soon they will just try to claim back as much from people as possible. Risky business now, but can be lucrative (i was getting 80% of rate back, there are now ones offering 90% iirc).
If i was to go contracting again, it would be via a normal umbrella if it was short term.
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
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Morba said:
If i was to go contracting again, it would be via a normal umbrella if it was short term.

Same here, short term I can't be bothered with the hassle of setting everything up for a limited co, lazy I know :)
 
Associate
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Same here, short term I can't be bothered with the hassle of setting everything up for a limited co, lazy I know :)

Thats whAt I hoty accountant for :)

All I have to do is transfer my money from my business account my private account on a Friday


Dunno about tax avoiding tho, this all depends an what point of view you have also in the first 5 years you are pretty save about not getting investigated unless they change the law significantly soon. Since you're not breaking the law as this areA is very grey at the moment ;)
 
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Thats whAt I hoty accountant for :)

All I have to do is transfer my money from my business account my private account on a Friday


Dunno about tax avoiding tho, this all depends an what point of view you have also in the first 5 years you are pretty save about not getting investigated unless they change the law significantly soon. Since you're not breaking the law as this areA is very grey at the moment ;)

That's for from true and very naive to think that you are safe for 5 years tbh.
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
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Thats whAt I hoty accountant for :)

Yup once all setup it's not much hassle for the benefits gained I agree, but I'm purely talking about short term stuff.

i.e. when I contracted for 3 months there was not much point going limited co when I new I'd be perm after that period.
 
Caporegime
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how come its naive

i have 1 one year contract which gets tendered every yeat so to speak

claim expenses only for 2 years

its all within the law nothing dodgy here

funny thing is, i work for the government :)

It's naive because if you think that you are safe then you are a fool. Also there are plenty of instances (go look on cuk) where people have been investigated and they have had to pay back money from a long time prior to the actual year being investigated initially.
 
Associate
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It's naive because if you think that you are safe then you are a fool. Also there are plenty of instances (go look on cuk) where people have been investigated and they have had to pay back money from a long time prior to the actual year being investigated initially.

not saying its 100% safe

but

i did my homework on this before i switched so no worries

half the site here is running their own Ltd. and a lot for over 20 years and nothing has happened? :confused:


also read up about it and the government actually loses a lotmore money getting people to court and loose rather than winning their case :)


there are just certain things you shouldnt do as Ltd. so that you still fall under IR35 also depends on the contract you have :)
 
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