UCFinance - helping IR35 status allegedly...

[psychocandy]

Must admit I'm dubious....

Seems to be, basically, a way to get your money weekly from them rather than wait for agency to cough up.

But they seem to be saying that since, in effect, you are raising corporate finance and thus managing a financial risk, then it helps IR35 status. Sounds a bit tenuous to me.....

And they seem to charge £30 a week or so for this advance payment...

[northernladuk]

Yeah I saw that as well. Seems like they are just playing on IR35 fears. Also appears to be an artificial set up with no true business requirement so can't see how it will stand for anything. They would be better off renting a desk in their office to 50 contractors to help them with the business tests.

[Maslins]

Just another form of payday loan IMHO. Quote the costs in tiny little chunks so it doesn't sound too bad.

Corporate finance?! Again IMHO if anything it proves you're crap at running a business, because you can't even wait a week to get funds from your client.

Also, surely after perhaps months 1-3 cashflow shouldn't be a problem anyway. HMRC are great from a cashflow perspective, as you get to hold the CT/VAT for months. Therefore you're more often limited in terms of what you can take out by retained profits (as debtors still count as assets) rather than cash at bank...so once you get to that stage you're paying the equivalent of probably quite a few % for the privilege of earning <1% interest in your company current account.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Sounds like factoring or a managed service company depending on how you look at it - can't see how it can have any bearing whatsoever on IR35 status

[psychocandy]

Just another form of payday loan IMHO. Quote the costs in tiny little chunks so it doesn't sound too bad.

Corporate finance?! Again IMHO if anything it proves you're crap at running a business, because you can't even wait a week to get funds from your client.

Also, surely after perhaps months 1-3 cashflow shouldn't be a problem anyway. HMRC are great from a cashflow perspective, as you get to hold the CT/VAT for months. Therefore you're more often limited in terms of what you can take out by retained profits (as debtors still count as assets) rather than cash at bank...so once you get to that stage you're paying the equivalent of probably quite a few % for the privilege of earning <1% interest in your company current account.

EXACTLY. After the first few months, you've usually got spare VAT and CT to help with cashflow.

Not suggesting you spend it but the cash should be there in the business account.

[psychocandy]

Also, how can they say HMRC are going to be OK because you're taking a financial risk?

Surely, they're the ones taking the risk, giving you payment up front before your invoice is paid? No risk to you at all surely?

(apart from risking and losing £30 a week for a disguised payday loan!)

[captainham]

Operating as outside IR35 when you're actually inside...now there IS a financial risk, so does that put you back outside again?

By Jove I think I've cracked it

[JoannaUCF]

Hi all

I'm Joanna from UC Finance - I thought I'd jump on here to see if I can answer any queries being chatted about in this thread.

With regards to the IR35 issue, for me, there is so much focus on this and so much concern and fear around 'am I self-employed or aren't I?', and possibly more importantly - 'what will HMRC think?', at last there is some positive news. Don't get me wrong, we're not suggesting that this will be a decisive factor, however a contractor paying for his own business finance is one of those smaller things, but they all add up!

We appreciate that this type of finance isn't for everybody, but we have many clients who do find all of our services very helpful.

On the matter of cost - we've specifically set this up to be in line with, if not cheaper than, traditional forms of bank lending.

I don't want to ramble on too much here, but if there are any queries at all I'll do my best to respond.

[Lewis]

Am surprised QDOS are involved (or 'in partnership with')

[northernladuk]

I liked the another article on there telling us about a new contractor gigs portal called jobs 4 contractors. Got my pedant senses tingling that one

I can't stand people using letters or shortened letters like 'u' instead of you in company/website names personally either.