Contracting thru lt company - how it effects assesment of highly skilled migrant visa

[stacrafty]

Hi all

I have 8 months left on my 2 year visa and want to stay on cause I'm earning good money.
I plan to apply for a highly skilled migrant visa, and was wondering how they are going to assess my income, as I currently contract through a ltd company - so my earnings are made up of minimum wage + dividends. I understand this should be ok, but the thing is I want to change over to payscheme + plus, which has an even lower effective tax rate.

Will payscheme plus's method is
"Basically they take all your money, give themselves some (5% or something), then pay you minimum wage (which is not much over £5/hr) - on which you pay tax, NI etc. The rest of your money is then given to you as a "loan", which is written off by PaySchemePlus after a period of time."

will this effect the way my income assessment component of my highly skilled migrant visa is done?

Also how hard is it to apply for the highly skilled migrant visa yourself? - 1st contact have quoted me £1000 for it

Thanks in advance

[malvolio]

Why not look it all up on the DTI website? I suspect the UK contracting workforce aren't all that hot on how non-EU people get visas to work in their marketplace.

Also, you might note that IT is not listed as a skills shortage so it's a bit unlikely you'll get a visa anyway.

Finally, do you think running a known, aggressive and highly dubious tax avoidance scheme would reccommend you as someone who should be granted one anyway?

[Xenophon]

Also, you might note that IT is not listed as a skills shortage so it's a bit unlikely you'll get a visa anyway.

Finally, do you think running a known, aggressive and highly dubious tax avoidance scheme would reccommend you as someone who should be granted one anyway?

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[Dundeegeorge]

Trit trot, trit trot, trit trot

Oh, oh, looks like the billygoat is on it's way.
Better get back under that bridge.

[stacrafty]

Why not look it all up on the DTI website? I suspect the UK contracting workforce aren't all that hot on how non-EU people get visas to work in their marketplace.

Also, you might note that IT is not listed as a skills shortage so it's a bit unlikely you'll get a visa anyway.

Finally, do you think running a known, aggressive and highly dubious tax avoidance scheme would reccommend you as someone who should be granted one anyway?

I'm actually a financial analyst by trade. Im not IT illiterate - I do a bit of access & VB. My current contract would be classed as IT though.

I guess its not worth it to save 100 quid a week and ruin my chances of being able to stay here another 2 years on the good money...