Newbie - Umberella company question

[Prodigy]

Ok that seems to make sense. I am currently earning 55K although the employer does not contribute towards pensions at all. I suppose outside IR35 as you state would definitely be more lucrative and almost a no-brainer. The problem I have is that there seems to be two schools of thought (as far as I can see) on here. i.e. you need to be really careful about your working practices and make sure that you are genuinely outside IR35 or to not worry, get an IR35 friendly contract and take your chances bearing in mind the number of wins for HMRC is statistically extremely small. What worries me about the latter is that this may be all well and good for the time being but I believe they can go after you up to 6 years after so surely by this time things may change and you could end up with a hefty back payment/fine.

As far as I am aware no longer limited in just PAYE but uses whatever expenses policy they have to try and inflate the earnings.

[malvolio]

Still don't really understand it do you? Go read the guides and try again. Meanwhile:

a) If you are saying your shiny new contract is merely replacing your current permie role, then you will be IR35'd because that is exactly what IR35 - and the last budget with its attack on small companies - is intended to stop happening. If I read that wrong then fine, but if not be very careful about what you are doing and make sure you understand the implications, and

b) There are two recommended umbrellas for newbies on this board, Parasol and PCG QU, for a good reason. I doubt you currently have the knowledge to go against that advice

[Prodigy]

Thanks for the advice guys.

In response to the last post - I would say that I probably do understand the implications of IR35 which is precisely why I said that I believed my contract fell within this criteria and could anybody recommend any good umbrella companies! I think I would be daft to assume it didn't as it would be bloody obvious that I was an employee in disguise and no amount of MOO, substitution etc in the contract would allow me to disguise even the most basic investigation. The thing I really need to decided is whether a contract route is actually going to be more lucrative in the long run.

From what I gather the formula is hourly rate X 1000 roughly gives you the equivalent yearly salary, so I suppose in my case it is roughly equivalent. Maybe I could try and negotiate a higher rate or just stay permie