Best Umbrella Company to use?

[Cowboy Bob]

You are right to be concerned with any umbrella company that is not prepared to put their money where their mouth is. And the fact that their response to whether you can continue to claim travel expenses is to quote their dispensation is disengenuous at best, out-right misleading at worst since a dispensation has no bearing whatsoever on whether the expenses are legitimate. Personally, I would avoid based on their slipperyness and unwillingness to answer a simple question.

As for their reference to the PCG that is simply underhand. They have entered into a business relationship with the PCG, nothing more, nothing less - you don't get compliance from the IR from having a business relationship with a 3rd party. No to mention that this particular relationship caused a lot of consternation amongst PCG members (including myself) over the fact that they were not consulted about the arrangement at all and the fact that there was a certain amount of nepotism going on (allegedly, blah blah blah).

[malvolio]

They are answering it, actually. They are saying "No f***ing way"...

Draw your own conclusions.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

With regard to the question about subsistence - if your job involves you being on the road all day rather than at one site the Inland Revenue would permit you to claim a reasonable amount each day for meals whilst you were travelling. If you leave home - go to work in the same place each day - go home each night then you cannot claim a daily subsistence allowance legally .

HTH

[contractorbloke]

Will anyone do it?

Just out of interest, is there any umbrella company that will put their money where their mouth is and say that if they incorrectly do your accounts then they will make up the difference?

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

If we made a mistake and it cost you money we would absolutely 100% make up the difference to you.

[bangface]

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):

Unbelievable, I contacted them a while ago about their holiday pay and got a similar non-committal response. I have to agree with Cowboy Bob too, poor show re PCG comments

[Lewis]

I'm very pleased with 83% take home pay conidering everything is taken care of for me and I don't have any accounts to worry about each month.

Errr .. I think you might be forgetting the tax you must pay via your self assessment tax return! That would bring you down to more like 70%.

[Lewis]

I've been with Giant Group for a couple of years and cannot fault them.I find my CSM very good

I used Giant for a number of years and found their customer service varied enormously from good to disgraceful. I recently had some bad experiences with an offensive CSM and personally would not consider using them again.

[Lewis]

Ripped me off for nearly £2000

What happened?

[Lewis]

IOn average, I take home 80% and never had any problems. .... Now, the thing that worries me is the subsistence. As I work away from home I claim £15 per day, on which I get tax rebate, but I do not have receipts. Am I going to be in trouble for this? If so, can I use Giant's IR35 insurance to cover my backside?

You are forgetting you must pay personal tax on dividends at the end of the year! Your 80% will become 70%.

With regards to subsistence, yes you do need to be worried, you should have keep receipts yourself (which Giant conveniently didn't mention) and if you look on the expense form you will see that Giant will not be held responsible for HMRC challenged expenses. i.e. expenses are entered at your own risk. Furthermore until recently their portal would not even allow anything other than the full dispensation to be entered!

The IR35 insurance is for IR35 not expenses!