I'm done with using a limited.

[Andy2]

For a 100k salary how much net salary do you get in case of brolly/ltd
assuming 20k expenses(salary+travel+subsistence)

[LucidDementia]

I'm sorry, what?

[VectraMan]

You could always keep your limited and operate inside IR35. Then you get the 5% and free money from the FRS, and if you're half way intelligent you don't need to pay a fee to anyone to do the accounts.

Reading this forum it's obvious how much contractors' lives revolve around avoiding a little bit of tax. Just decide to be inside and you can forget contract reviews, IPSE, that moment of panic when an HMRC letter arrives on your doorstep, worrying about whether accepting a cup of tea from a colleague is going to change your IR35 status, etc. etc. And it means you can sell your services as you and only you and that you're happy to do whatever they want however they want as long as they pay and yes please sign me up for the Christmas party.

And don't forget that that letter can arrive at any time in the next six years, and HMRC have form when it comes to retrospective legislation.

There's a lot to be said for simply paying your tax and getting on with life.

Not that I'll necessarily be doing this.

[sirja]

TBH, with the new Div tax coming I am serioulsy wondering if the current model of low salary plus dividends will still make sense post April 2016. As I tend to fall into the higher tax band anyway, it may just make more sense to pay myself a nice big salary (IE put myself inside IR35) and be done with it.

[d000hg]

Finally someone sees the light. Running a Ltd is stressful if you're a one man band.

This is partly because it's not the right/best solution for contracting - we don't have a lot of choice so this is the least bad option, but it's a bit of a kludge for the majority of us who just want to contract.

[EternalOptimist]

Aside from the agent/agency angle
is there any good reason why we cannot set up as sole traders ?

[MicrosoftBob]

Aside from the agent/agency angle
is there any good reason why we cannot set up as sole traders ?

Unlimited liability, and the reluctance of employers to engage you directly

[EternalOptimist]

Unlimited liability, and the reluctance of employers to engage you directly

is that all ?

I could cope with that

[d000hg]

If you can get a client willing to take you on, it's fine though as mentioned liability is an issue. However you can (presumably) still get PI insurance and word contracts to protect you?

Lots of people work as ST but more doing odd bits of freelancing e.g. "My shop needs a website, can you do it for a few hundred quid". You might do better with much smaller clients who don't have an HR layer.

[LucidDementia]

Unlimited liability, and the reluctance of employers to engage you directly

Unlimited liability is not an issue really assuming you have correct insurances. Employers?
Folk don't wish to engage sole traders mainly due to the oft-pushed notion that Limited are "safer" to work with, which is utter nonsense.

My first contract I actually was sole-trading. For a few months, then the intermediary panicked so I opened a Ltd and jumped to a different supplier on the PSL.