Wow! can Prosperity4 really do this for me?

[DaveB]

"Surely none of the highly intelligent members of this board would fall for something as amatuerish and nonsensical as the P4 blurb"

Not people on this board, but given the obviously large amounts they spend on advertising, i would say that plenty of others do fall for this. I just wondered why the IR have not done anything yet.

Never mind the IR, shop them to the ASA.

The complaints pages are here. It won't take much. A dozen or so complaints pointing out why the e-mail is misleading should do it.

Expat, can you post a copy of the entire e-mail?

[DaveB]

Just took a look at their webtulipe. I may need a shower later.

Among other things they are also claiming that contractors using their services will not be visited by the tax man and that you can claim up £25 per night when you sleep on a friends sofa.

Anyone got any ideas where they get the sofa thing from?

[BoredBloke]

I'ts also worth noting that P4 are very keen on monitoring these types of web forumns, so don't say anything which you may regret. I have it on good authority that they have already approached shout99 regarding some of the comments already on there. Given ContractorUK's speedy removal of the test please delete thread, imagine how quickly they will react to threats of legal action from P4.

[DimPrawn]

"Surely none of the highly intelligent members of this board would fall for something as amatuerish and nonsensical as the P4 blurb"

Not people on this board, but given the obviously large amounts they spend on advertising, i would say that plenty of others do fall for this. I just wondered why the IR have not done anything yet.

They (P4) are probably good friends of the New Labour Party and have "lent" them a few bob.

HTH

[Torran]

you can claim up £25 per night when you sleep on a friends sofa.

Anyone got any ideas where they get the sofa thing from?

I believe this to be true. Not sure how it all legalises itself though.

anyone be arsed looking through the Revenue website?

[oraclesmith]

Prosperity are your employer if you go with them, and they are allowed to reimburse their employees with legitimate business expenses, including a minimal payment (at the petty expenses level) for overnight accommodation at friends/relatives provided it is necessary in the course of the employees duties. The HMRC do the same for their own investigators on what's called the non-commercial scale. The expenses are, of course, supposed to be paid to the owner of the accommodation to compensate them for the cost of the stay.

[v8gaz]

I suspect that P4 are just the sort that Gordie is after in his recently announced crackdown on dodgy brollys.

Stay well away! It's not worth it!

[BoredBloke]

"I suspect that P4 are just the sort that Gordie is after in his recently announced crackdown on dodgy brollys."

That may be true, what I can't understand is why nobody has taken action so far. I first heard about p4 about 4 or 5 years ago. I thought it sounded too good to be true then. But that said, there must be a load of people who could potentially face financial disaster when (if) the IR come knocking.

[malvolio]

"I suspect that P4 are just the sort that Gordie is after in his recently announced crackdown on dodgy brollys."

That may be true, what I can't understand is why nobody has taken action so far. I first heard about p4 about 4 or 5 years ago. I thought it sounded too good to be true then. But that said, there must be a load of people who could potentially face financial disaster when (if) the IR come knocking.

May well be true, but HMRC are looking at all such companies at the moment, and the expectation is that composites will be in the firing line. Proper umbrellas are not tax-avoidance mechanisms since they don't pay dividends and so there is no NIC avoidance going on (in effect, you're inside IR35 anyway so who cares).

The problem with some perfectly legitimate umbrellas is the way they quote maximum possible values to pump up the apparent return - but then if you're dim enough to believe you can claim overnight allowance, £25 lunches and daily travel costs for the same day's work, you probably deserve to be caught anyway. As someeone said, this is more to do with the ASA then Hector.

But if you're with a composite, I would be getting a little worried about the future.

[Dundeegeorge]

I understand that joining P4

can also increase the size of your penis, increase your vocabulary and make you more attractive to women.

Oh, it says here, it doesn't work on Russians.