Can I go Ltd?

[Tees]

Have searched this forum for days and no previous questions / answers come close to my situation so I'm after some advice please guys.

I have worked in a projects team for 4 years at the same site the first year was via agency PAYE the rest via an MSC (instigated and promoted via the agent), obviously big changes have happened and my income has dropped. During all of this time I have never had a contract with either the agent nor the client, I don't receive holiday pay, sick pay, pension, etc from anyone.
A new large project (6 to 9 months) is about to kick off in the next couple of weeks, is it time for me to get a contract for the duration of this job? would it fall foul of IR35? Surely I can't be classed as this Friday / Monday scenario as I am not a permie swapping?
I am confused to say the least.

[Sockpuppet]

Ltd has nothing to do with IR35. Well not in the sense that an IR35 caught person cannot set one up.

If I was you and I'd have sepnt 4 years there I would go permie and get the benefits that it recieves. Setting up a Ltd company probably wont help you as I'd say you could be classed as an employee after 4 years you'd be doing a good job to have not started acting like one.

[Tees]

Thanks for the reply. The company are not interested in taking people on, tried that one before. The thing is if I left the next person to come in and do this project would deffo be Ltd and would no doubt have the advantages associated with it. I guess I would like to do the same but can I in terms of dividends etc?

[malvolio]

If you have never had a contract of employement, you can argue that you aren't a Friday to Monday, merely a supplier consolidating his trading position. It would be very hard (but not impossible) to prove an IR35-type position, but starting now you really need to ignore IR35 and get a formal agremeent in place.

Get your own company set up and use a direct contract with the "new" client. Go PCG One-Stop for simplicity and for access to their library of contracts.

[Tees]

Thanks Malvolio. I had been looking at that earlier today but didn't know whether it applied to my circumstances or not.
So do you think if I get a formal agreement in place I may be OK to effectively start from scratch at the same place?

[Bluebird]

don't forget though that as you'll have been on the same site for 24+ months you can't claim "personal expenses" such as milage, accomodation & subsitence.