Overseas solutions + Orangegenie

[Learned Hand]

Hi all

Has anyone had any experience of using an overseas firm (i.e Isle of Man)that essentially sets up a trust for you as a contractor? It keeps a retainer for you that is liable for tax and NI but any money paid to you via the trust are not retainable.

I do not fully understand the details of this and as a first time contractor I was heading down the route of going with an umbrella company.

On that note does anyone have any uptodate opinion on Orangegenie? I have searched all the stickies and found both positive and negative comments about them. Does anyone currently use them who is happy with their service?

Many thanks in advance.

[bling]

Be careful not to fall for their 'max out' expenses shown on their pay calculator

[ChimpMaster]

Do a search for Loans / Trusts / EBTs etc on this site and you'll find plenty of opinions both ways.

[malvolio]

The key point to remember is that EBTs are now illegal in the UK. So if you are a first time contractor, with presumably limited knowledge and experience of the business, do you hink it 's a good idea to use a route that 99.9% of your fellow contractors don't? Perhaps we're all wrong, and are deluding ourselves that LtdCo or Umbrella are the only viable options.

Also note, it don't matter how you earn it or where you keep it, if you are UK tax resident, you pay UK tax on it at some point - in the case of the fancy schemes, usually when you try and come out of them and discover a very large tax bill on your doormat.

Don't be greedy, go with an umbrella and learn the business first.

[ASB]

EBT's are not in anyway illegal. They are however ineffective in general from a tax planning point of view.

There are however some offshore schemes that can work for some people in certain circumstances. Some of the IOM ones rely on specific nuances of the DTA between the UK and the IOM. This is related to exempting certain categories of income from UK tax - and they have conveniently been fully taxed in the IOM at 0%.

It is not something to go into lightly. The "it won't work" argument is simplistic - and in an awful lot of cases correct.

You may be able to research further and find something that fits with your circumstances that you can be confident in. ultimately, however, if the scheme is challenged it will be you who needs to defend it and you who pay the price if it fails. HMRC can afford lots of very expensive lawyers and it is you who needs to prove you are right.

The sort of trust to which you refer is unlikely to be an EBT - if it is it's doomed. There are some sorts of trust which can be established in the IOM which may under certain limited circumstances work, but there will be a lot of hoops to jump through and keep jumping through. It is quite likely that associated costs will eat up any tax savings you may be able to make and in any event you will still be at much greater risk of attack from the revenue, especially with the disclosure rules that are in place.

some threads you might like to review.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...company-3.html
http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...e-setup-2.html
http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...35-scheme.html
http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...ly-please.html

[malvolio]

Like I said - Don't be greedy, go with an umbrella and learn the business first.

[Pondlife]

Hey Mal,

Isn't there some type of organisation or group the OP could join that might provide useful info for new contractors. Maybe even one with a first timers guide.
If not, there should be.

[malvolio]

Hey Mal,

Isn't there some type of organisation or group the OP could join that might provide useful info for new contractors. Maybe even one with a first timers guide.
If not, there should be.

Couldn't possibly comment...

[Learned Hand]

Thanks for all the responses.

having looked further into this method it only confirmed that i need to be sensible. I have now signed up with Orangegenie...so at their mercy!