Partner running limited company and being director.

[BrilloPad]

Going to provide design consultancy services for an Engineering company.

Direct or via an agent?

Any idea what the onboarding is like?

[northernladuk]

Might be worth checking out the umbrella option in the short term.

[whitelined]

Via agent, although agent only acting on payment intermediary. Only thing on boarding is health and safety.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Legally there's nothing really stopping you. The main things to consider are what everyone else has mentioned so far - you may find yourself restricted on finding work through agencies.

[northernladuk]

If you are planning on using a LTD to extract the cash in the most efficient method possible there are certain cases where this setup probably won't actually work very well. It will come down to details of your wife's working situation and the like so it might make more sense just to go through an Umbrella company. Less hassle and could help with the gigs where you have to be 100% shareholder etc.

[malvolio]

Legally there's nothing really stopping you. The main things to consider are what everyone else has mentioned so far - you may find yourself restricted on finding work through agencies.

The other issue is that of shadow directorship: the OP can't be a director, the director(s) control the company, the director(s) cannot be instructed by non-directors.

Best option is to go through an umbrella, sadly.

[WordIsBond]

The other issue is that of shadow directorship: the OP can't be a director, the director(s) control the company, the director(s) cannot be instructed by non-directors.

Would be pretty hard to prove he's in breach of this. Lots of directors discuss business decisions with their spouse/partner. Proving the line has been crossed into shadow directorship would be hard, and it shouldn't be hard to stay on the right side of that line, anyway. Just talk things over and agree together.

If the two of them can't agree together on the business decisions of a one-man contracting business, they've got bigger issues in their relationship and the thing will blow up on its own.

[Lance]

Would be pretty hard to prove he's in breach of this. Lots of directors discuss business decisions with their spouse/partner. Proving the line has been crossed into shadow directorship would be hard, and it shouldn't be hard to stay on the right side of that line, anyway. Just talk things over and agree together.

If the two of them can't agree together on the business decisions of a one-man contracting business, they've got bigger issues in their relationship and the thing will blow up on its own.

This is probably the reason why it's been suggested. There are a lot of businesses near where I live that go pop, then start again with a brother as director but basically the same tulipshow.