Basic question on contractor pay rates and tax

[SueEllen]

OP - One piece of advice. Ignore anything Hays say to you. It will be a lie. They WILL be looking out for themselves only and not you.

Not helpful at all.

The OP should ask Hayes questions then come back here for advice.

[SueEllen]

SueEllen - I am with Hays not umbrella. Looking at umbrella options n ltd

You are an agency worker or what is traditionally known as a "temp". You are not a contractor at all.

On this site the vast majority of us work through limited companies or umbrella companies.

As you know nothing about what you are doing if you need to work through one of those structures use an umbrella company. The one I would recommend is Contractor Umbrella. They are very helpful both on this site and of it. Do not work through any umbrella company recommended by Hayes as they get commission for the introduction.

The reason not to go limited now is that there are many threads on here from posters who have gone contracting, set up a limited company and have got into a mess with HMRC.

[Cirrus]

Liver

You don't seem to have put any info on your profile and it's really not possible to guess what you do and what your circumstances are from your terse post.

If you want help from people on bulletin boards then you need to give them a fighting chance. They're not going to bother to answer if it is hard work.

[BolshieBastard]

It sounds to me like the OP is employed via the Hayes 'employed contractor model.' A number of agencies do this now and sell it to former employed people turning to contracting as being the 'best of both the employed and contracting world' because they are 1, always in work, 2, get holiday pay and 3, get paid while between assignments.

They sell it to clients as having a pool of 'talent' readily available to come in and do the work at lower cost than their supplied contractors.

What it means is you only get to work for Hayes clients and have a far lower 'rate' than a pukka contractor.

Adecco tried introducing it at a former client when i was there. The 'rate' was piss poor and equated to around 30 grand a year. Not surprisingly, no one took up the offer.

I dont know what Hayes' best option is for the OP but, Id tell him to forget this option and go contracting properly. This will mean rejecting the current offer as Hayes wont change from their model to a contract one in this instance.

[SueEllen]

If it is the "employed contractor model" you may as well work for a proper consultancy as you will have more support, better benefits and more likely better pay.

Alternatively become a contractor properly.

Hayes may have stuck some clauses in your contract so if you signed it take legal advice to establish your actual status so you can get out of it. This is because the agent will threaten to sue you if you decide now to turn down the role. However as you are an employee or an agency worker they cannot do this.

[northernladuk]

OP - One piece of advice. Ignore anything Hays say to you. It will be a lie. They WILL be looking out for themselves only and not you.

Another piece of advice. Ignore most of what this poster says.. HTH

[northernladuk]

It sounds to me like the OP is employed via the Hayes 'employed contractor model.' A number of agencies do this now and sell it to former employed people turning to contracting as being the 'best of both the employed and contracting world' because they are 1, always in work, 2, get holiday pay and 3, get paid while between assignments.

They sell it to clients as having a pool of 'talent' readily available to come in and do the work at lower cost than their supplied contractors.

What it means is you only get to work for Hayes clients and have a far lower 'rate' than a pukka contractor.

Adecco tried introducing it at a former client when i was there. The 'rate' was piss poor and equated to around 30 grand a year. Not surprisingly, no one took up the offer.

I dont know what Hayes' best option is for the OP but, Id tell him to forget this option and go contracting properly. This will mean rejecting the current offer as Hayes wont change from their model to a contract one in this instance.

This. They used to do this at Barclays quite a lot. Not sure if they still do. Just be warned although it sounds like there is a bit more security there isn't. They will bin you a month after you've been on their bench if you can't find anything, which you probably won't be able to under that model. It's a bit of a pisstake where they are trying to take some of the contracting gigs going which is a bit off as they are the ones resourcing these gigs. Like cherry picking...

They've been at it for years. Here one of quite a few threads from 2012...

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...been-sent.html

[Liver]

I think most of the replies agree I need to do more homework on the options I have before signing the contract and that's what I am doing.

Thanks for the advice and to be honest I don't think what Hays offered was anything sinister or misleading, they are just 'acting' between me and the Client and mentioned about the different pay types I can get and its up to me to do more research.

SueEllen - thanks for advice and yes they did offer me a list of umbrella companies but also said its all upto me.

What confused me was the 2 rates they gave me, premium and basic and I think when I contact umbrella I should be using the Premium rate (13% higher)

[pr1]

I think most of the replies agree I need to do more homework on the options I have before signing the contract and that's what I am doing.

Thanks for the advice and to be honest I don't think what Hays offered was anything sinister or misleading, they are just 'acting' between me and the Client and mentioned about the different pay types I can get and its up to me to do more research.

SueEllen - thanks for advice and yes they did offer me a list of umbrella companies but also said its all upto me.

What confused me was the 2 rates they gave me, premium and basic and I think when I contact umbrella I should be using the Premium rate (13% higher)

My guess (note, guess!) would be that that's the difference between accruing holiday days and not

13% is about 34 (paid) days off out of a possible 260 working days (52*5), which given 8 bank holidays, is 26 days off of your choice, sounds feasible

The higher rate probably means you'll get paid £0 for "days off" - so it seems like if you're planning on working more than 226 days (45 weeks), i.e. taking less than 34 days off, then it's worthwhile opting for the higher rate

Definitely speak to them and read the small print before you sign anything though

[psychocandy]

Another piece of advice. Ignore most of what this poster says.. HTH

Ignore ALL of what this poster says. Hes got a small willy and thinks he knows it all.