Update from my MSC

[malvolio]

And the other minor change is that your normal place of work is no longer regarded as temporary but as being your normal place of work - wherever it is. Which is nice...

Travel expenses? What are they then...?

[Sockpuppet]

I'm getting a feeling...

Its sort of like a smug satisfaction, warm glowing feeling that I didnt go to and MSC and set up my own Ltd.

Is this what it feels like to have bought you house in the late 90s?

[Newby]

Colin, Giant are hardly likely to publish a negative spin on the fact that they have lost their dispensation, however they could disguise it as the start of a change in policy due to the pre budget speech instead.

Sockpuppet, just imagine if you ran your own company and had bought a house in the late nineties!!!

[MarillionFan]

"£10 just for business travel to a temporary workplace. Also my £15 subsidence allowance would require about 10 VAT receipts per day from a workplace that doesn't even have normal receipts - never mind VAT ones! I've worked out that I would now have to submit over 60 VAT receipts per week.

It's not practical - Ive told my agency I'm moving to someone else. They have a strong relationship with Giant - but this is just unworkable now."

ROFL. As a real business we have to keep every bloody receipt. Including receipts for toilet paper. Why should you as a 'real company' be any different.

Only recently I told some contractor he had to keep all his receipts otherwise it was fraud. You only get back what you spend, otherwise you are committing fraud and your new boyfriend will be your cellmate Bubba!

[lukemg]

I am with an MSC currently and although it costs, I have been very happy with the total lack of effort I have had to put into it. In addition, getting out of it is going to be very easy also, my limited was a major pain to get shut of, distribute assets, inform people etc, even if the bean counters did most of it. I suspect this ability to bail is one of the reasons they are targetted, too easy to close when IR35 knocks on the door.
They have changed the rules of the game, so what, you have until April to lose the MSC and setup your own limited. PCG are even doing a bank account + company package to do the lot as well.
Bit more awkward admin wise, but a slight hiccup in real terms.

[monkeygeorge]

I don't see the problem with the pertol receipts (unless you use a hybrid). If you do the mileage you claim then you'll have the receipts. £10 per 100 miles is quite realistic at 30 mpg.

A lot of MSC haters are gloating about this but a lot of people using MSCs, like myself, would welcome a change that elliminates uncertainty and means that you claim expenses without having to worry about breaking the law. MSCs have been misleading people for years about subsitence claims (although if you ask them they will probably tell you that you do need to keep receipts). At least now it should be balck or white, as it should be.

The major change that looks like coming out from all of this is that you will no longer be able to receive dividends from MSCs.

[rawly]

OK - I have some more clarification from Giant this morning.

The request is not from HMRC - it is purely what their external independent consultants recommended.

Some points from above:

1) I am fully aware this is all being removed come April 2007 anyway - BUT I am currently legally fully within my rights being less than 24 months into a contract to claim travel and subsidence to a temporary workplace. This is not the issue - so get over it!

2) As to my car mileage. 40p at 32 miles is £12.80 a day - Giant have now stopped me claiming this as I don't fall within their 100 miles per £10 criteria. The problem is HMRC statute states I am fully entitled to claim the 40p - BUT this is NOT a Petrol rate - it is petrol/maintenance/wear and tear. You can't VAT bill something like that. This is why IR regualations clearly state I am only obliged to log my mileage in a log book. Giant have overidden this and in theory this could be deemed unlawful.

As this is all ending in 3 month, however, there seems little point in pursuing this. Only Giant seem to have been very badly advised over the Car Mileage situation especially.

[Cowboy Bob]

1) I am fully aware this is all being removed come April 2007 anyway - BUT I am currently legally fully within my rights being less than 24 months into a contract to claim travel and subsidence to a temporary workplace. This is not the issue - so get over it!

You still need all the receipts though, under both the new policy and going back as long as you've been doing it...

[rawly]

You still need all the receipts though, under both the new policy and going back as long as you've been doing it...

Who said I haven't! I just said posting 60 of them to Giant every week will cost me more postage that the £30 I'm saving! You only need to present the receipts if being investigated.

How do you explain getting the reciepts for the 40p mileage rate which is not Petrol but Petrol/Maintenance/Wear and Tear and the IR do NOT require you to hold receipts for this - only that you have logged the journey?

You have to admit at the very least that the Car Mileage ruling is most strange?

[Cowboy Bob]

Who said I haven't!

Fair enough, but you'll be amazed by the amount of people who haven't been keeping receipts...