Best Umbrella Company to use?

[To BI or not to BI?]

Thanks Alan


I did a bit of research on the forum and I checked Giant's website again. This is what they say:
subsistence allowance

The principal legislation relating to employee travel expenses is contained in Sections 337 to 339 ITEPA 2003. Although those provisions do not specifically mention ‘subsistence’ the Revenue has long accepted that necessary travelling expenses include the additional costs of meals and accommodation that an employee incurs on a business journey.

If mileage allowance or business travel is being claimed, you can claim for the associated subsistence.
.......Receipts are NOT required

Now i find this slightly misleading. They should say "receipts are not required by giant but you shold keep them in case IR decides it's time to screw you big time..... Very naughty of them!

[To BI or not to BI?]

Now I jusst need to go and fish out all my shopping and gas receipts

[Ardesco]

If mileage allowance or business travel is being claimed, you can claim for the associated subsistence.
.......Receipts are NOT required

Now i find this slightly misleading. They should say "receipts are not required by giant but you shold keep them in case IR decides it's time to screw you big time..... Very naughty of them!

At last, somebody who understands

They are being naughty, this causes confusion and leads some people to belive that if they go with Giant (or insert any umbrella company that has a dispensation with the IR here) they can claim the full subsistence amount every day with no comeback even if they have not incurred these expenses.

It makes people think that they can claim more if they go with Giant (When you can claim the same amount no matter which umbrella you go with, and you can claim the same if you have your own LTD Co).

Of course you can claim expenses up to the limit, but if you can't prove to the IR that you incurred these costs if they investigate you, you are the one in trouble, not Giant. Giant will simply say, "Well we said XXX could claim X amount of his expenses without showing us his receipts. We did not say they could claim X amount a day just because they felt like it."

[To BI or not to BI?]

My question now is: will receipts from tesco/sainsbury etc. be considered valid proof of subsistence? Also, if there is a difference between the total amount calimed (at £15 per day) and the total amount of my receipts, will I be liable to pay tax only on that difference?

[Ardesco]

IANAA, however I would expect that it would just be tax paid on the difference. As long as you have a receipt proving that you have made a valid purchase it shouldn't really matter which company is on the receipt. There are no restrictions on who you purchase expensible items from.

I would also suggest getting in touch with your umbrella company and saying you have made a mistake and claimed extra and tell them amounts and dates so that they can correct your expenses and make sure that you do not fall into the tax evasion category. Doing it through the umbrella would probably be best, if you call up IR and tell them they may well decide you are worth investigating because you may have made a mistake somewhere else as well.

[Cactus]

this is who I use, been with them for 3 years now and apart from the odd glitch now and then seem on top and always come through with an answer

http://www.orangegenie.com/

dont touch P4 with a shty barge pole

I used to use OG not bad a couple of minor glitches like forgetting to pay me a whole invoice! (1 weeks wages).... My advice is to keep track of your weekly timesheets you submit and that they process them all!

However I left them because I was doing more and more admin and think I should be better off than the money I was taking home. So I've setup a limited company. I now don't spend anymore time on admin than I used to when I was through OG.

Having gone through the setting up of the limited company (5 months old now) I can say that I'm nearly past all the hurdles... It was a bit stressy at times Juggling money until invoices get paid but hey it seems straight forward enough now. Give setting up a limited company a real thought mate.

[lws]

Danbro are pretty good.

Steer well clear of GreenLantern35 though, they're nothing but a load of

[Cactus]

Thanks "Ardesco" for your input and clearing up all the "NON receiptable" expenses issue that MOST umbrella companies quote !!!

They're all cheeky B@st@rds for misleading their customers and I wish that they would take more responsibility for the information that they publish!

[Ardesco]

Unfortunatly they wont as it is a good way to get the less experianced to use them when they think they will be able to take home more money. I'm also sure they will have had thier legal department go through thier advice with a fine tooth comb to make sure that thier advice (while abiguous) is worded in a 100% legal way.

[contractorbloke]

Are these expenses legal.

Right, for those of you are claiming these and thinking they must be right else a big company like Parasol, Giant etc wouldn't be able to do it then why not ask them if they make a mistake they will make up the difference? After all you are paying for a service, if they do it wrong then they haven't provided the service you are paying for. Here's the email conversation I had with Parasol when I tried this (Names have been changed but all other wording has been left intact):

Hi agencylady

I just mailed my accountant and he said:

"You can no longer claim fuel because your trip to work will be treated
as a normal commute (same as mine etc..)"

Which is different to what you're telling me. Is that not correct?

Hi contractorbloke,

I can confirm that we have a Dispentation agreed with the Inland
revenue, this is the expenses guide I have sent you.

This may apply to some Managed services company, which we are not!

Hope this helps,

Hi agencylady

So in the event of me getting audited at some point and the Inland
Revenue saying you were wrong about these expenses and I have to pay, do
you pay these for incorrectly working out my accounts? Only asking as
there's loads of stuff on the net saying that these dispensations are
wrong, as does my accountant. Obviously the more money the better, but
not if I have to pay it back somewhere down the line.

Thanks

contractorbloke

Hi contractorbloke,

We are fully complaint and we have over 8,000 contractors on our books,
we have to ensure that we get this right, otherwise we could not
operate.

Hope this helps,

Hi agencylady

OK, so if you are sure you are right then you will happily reply to this
email stating that if this turns out to be incorrect and I get a large
bill due to expenses being incorrectly claimed then you will pay the
difference?

Regards

contractorbloke

Dear contractorbloke,

I can confirm that we work of the Figures that you would imput onto
our Online portal, we can only work with the information that you
provide, therefore there should be no incorrected process of
expenses.

Kind regards
agencylady

Hi agencylady

I understand all that. What I want is confirmation that if you work out
my expenses based on the information I give (which would be correct) and
the Inland Revenue later on say that YOU have claimed back expenses such
as fuel that should not have been claimed back then you will make up the
difference. I'm not an accountant, that's why I will be paying you. I do
not want to pay someone to incorrectly manage my accounts. If you are so
sure these fuel expenses are legitimate then I cannot see why you will
not simply acknowledge this? Of course, if I am at fault through filling
in incorrect miles etc then this is totally my fault. At the end of the
day I am paying you for a service and I want that service to be
guaranteed as much as possible.

Regards


contractorbloke


Hi contractorbloke,

Please Visit the below website and please feel free to ask them any
questions on how complaint parasol are.

They are the professional Contractors group, we have an exclusive
relationship with them and you can only get that for being Compliant.

www.pcg.org.uk

Hope this helps,

agencylady

All I'm asking is that you back up what you are telling me about
expenses. If you were as confident as you say you are then this would
not be an issue. The fact that you seem unable to offer this guarantee
by a simple email suggests to me that you are not yourself convinced
that the Inland Revenue won't advise you that these are not legitimate
expenses. Your whole website is based around having "no tax concerns"
and "putting your mind at rest" which is what I am trying to do. I'm not
too fussed on how compliant you are with pcg, I'm worried about how
compliant you are with the Inland Revenue. Without this guarantee I will
not be able to take up your service I'm afraid.

Regards

contractorbloke

Hi contractorbloke

I am unable to give you any more clarity that what I have, you have
the expenses guide that I have sent you, as a company if we were to
send this to our contractor's and this was not illegal we would not put
this out there! As there is nothing stopping the contractor approaching
the inland revenue with regards to this document.

If you feel that we are not right for you, then I am very sorry.

Hopefully we look forward to working with you.