Working as a contractor in Turkey for a British Company

[southaegean]

Hi All,

My name is Kaan. I am a Turkish citizen and living in Istanbul. I received a job offer from a British company which is an engineering position in Turkey. I have never worked as a contractor before because generally jobs are permanent in Turkey. I don't know anything about contractor work. They offered me £20 per hour 45 hour per week. They have described me the job details and it seems suitable for me. But this company doesn't have any branch office in Turkey. However I have got some concerns about this job. They have given me the contact details of an umbrella company in UK which they currently work together.

I can't ask anything to the umbrella company because they are all on christmas vacation. I just learned that the umbrella company takes £85 per month.

Can anyone explain me this process?
Do I have to get work and residence permit from British government (job will be in Turkey, I don't think so)
Do I have to contribute national insurance in UK?
Am I going to pay any tax to UK? If yes, so how much is it?
How can I calculate my net income?

I know I've asked lots of questions but before accepting this offer I need to clarify all these problems.

[Brilliant]

Hi.

What happened later on?

Hi All,

My name is Kaan. I am a Turkish citizen and living in Istanbul. I received a job offer from a British company which is an engineering position in Turkey. I have never worked as a contractor before because generally jobs are permanent in Turkey. I don't know anything about contractor work. They offered me £20 per hour 45 hour per week. They have described me the job details and it seems suitable for me. But this company doesn't have any branch office in Turkey. However I have got some concerns about this job. They have given me the contact details of an umbrella company in UK which they currently work together.

I can't ask anything to the umbrella company because they are all on christmas vacation. I just learned that the umbrella company takes £85 per month.

Can anyone explain me this process?
Do I have to get work and residence permit from British government (job will be in Turkey, I don't think so)
Do I have to contribute national insurance in UK?
Am I going to pay any tax to UK? If yes, so how much is it?
How can I calculate my net income?

I know I've asked lots of questions but before accepting this offer I need to clarify all these problems.

[istvan]

Reading this post a funny memory pops into my mind. Back in the good ol' days in Chicago, I was interviewed for an engineering job (man... nearly three decades ago). I had two rounds in the morning, then they took me out to lunch with a few engineers. The manager trying to light up the situation asked me, what do you know about the Turkish prisons? I am generally not quick on my feet, but at that time I have had just spat out: "tell me about it, you seem to know more about Turkish prisons then me." I got the job.

The situation Southaegean described, does not sound as a good arrangement. I am not an international tax expert, but having moved around quite a bit, I know that this can be a mess.

I hope this memory Southaegean's post triggered has nothing to do with his circumstances .

Anyway, I also would like to hear about what was the outcome of it.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Reading this post a funny memory pops into my mind. Back in the good ol' days in Chicago, I was interviewed for an engineering job (man... nearly three decades ago). I had two rounds in the morning, then they took me out to lunch with a few engineers. The manager trying to light up the situation asked me, what do you know about the Turkish prisons? I am generally not quick on my feet, but at that time I have had just spat out: "tell me about it, you seem to know more about Turkish prisons then me." I got the job.

The situation Southaegean described, does not sound as a good arrangement. I am not an international tax expert, but having moved around quite a bit, I know that this can be a mess.

I hope this memory Southaegean's post triggered has nothing to do with his circumstances .

Anyway, I also would like to hear about what was the outcome of it.

I had a similar situation with France: I lived there, and got a contract in France through a UK agency. It was a mess. My local French taxman insisted that I had to pay French VAT. "You are resident in France, the work is done in France for a French client: it's simple, you pay VAT in France". The UK international VAT office disagreed, seeing that I would be contracted to a UK company and would invoice them. The French international VAT office also strenuously disagreed with my French vatman, insisting that it would actually be wrong of me to do French VAT.

I respectfully agreed with the international experts and disagreed with my local taxman, but in the end it seemed to me that he was the one who would cause me grief if I didn't do what he said: so I (wrongly) charged French VAT.

BUT... the UK agency was understandably not ready to pay French VAT. After all they couldn't easily reclaim it from anywhere. Finally they found a French undertaking in the same group, who could therefore offset French VAT; and funnelled the contract through there. but otherwise I would have had to take a 20% hit myself, or give up the contract precisely because it was close to home.


That's just a sample of what may go wrong. In the OP's case (Turkey) I wouldn't be surprised if the Turkish authorities took the view that it's a Turkish operation; whereas the UK agency, and possibly HMRC, took the view that it's a British operation in Turkey, that just happens to be executed by a Turkish contractor.

Sadly in such a case, one is ahead of the regulations, a pioneer in international working. An old Western definition of a pioneer is: a guy with an arrow in his back.