Reply to: Insuring against Investigations

[chubba]

What about the FSB? Had a visit from one of their salesmen the other day - it costs £100 to join and you automatically get investigation insurance. Other benefits were good to so am seriously considering signing up. Anyone got any experience?

As well as the insurance the 7 day business account looked good and the legal helpline looked worth the £100 to me.

[malvolio]

PCG would. The only constraint is that you are not covered for an investigation that has already started when you joined.

No idea about QDOS these days, but a while back the answer would have been no.

[ChimpMaster]

I've been contracting for nearly 3 years... I want to be covered for the past 3 years too but would Qdos or PCG do that if I started insurance with them now?

[XLMonkey]

Argh!!

you're right, I was reading the wrong bit of the FAQs at the time, the insurance stops as soon as you stop paying for it....

Damn, that puts the kibosh on one of my plans. Sorry

[xoggoth]

Are you sure? Haven't got it with me but sure QDOS's FAIR35 covers investigations begun during the period of insurance. The fact that the IR may look at contracts before insurance has nothing to do with it. This is the usual basis for any type of insurance.

[Goya]

No need, the insurance covers you even if the claim occurs after you have stopped, provided that you were insured whilst you were contracting

Excellent! Cheers.

[Diestl]

Beautiful!

[XLMonkey]

No need, the insurance covers you even if the claim occurs after you have stopped, provided that you were insured whilst you were contracting

[Goya]

Also note the PCG covers you for all contracts within the one subscription. Some of the others used to be on a contract by contract basis, so you need to keep them up for 6 years after you finish and I don't know if that still applies.

I'm signed up to the PCG plus package. If I stop contracting, is it still prudent to keep this going for a while (6 years?) to cover any investigations that may take place in the future (investigating the contract I have now)?

[Diestl]

Dave, John and Peter

[gravesendboy]

ir 35 not an issue

Most contractors I speak to say IR35 is not an issue any more, but I would get PCG membership as it includes Insurance.

Which contractors have you been speaking to ?

[malvolio]

If memory serves, Qdos will back date the coverage for previous contracts - as long as they review them and they pass their review, they will insure them.

HTH,
Faqqer

That's my point - why insure something that an expert has said is a pass? What are you insuring against, exactly? As long as you have cover for the legal/accountancy costs of an investigation, why pay to cover the risk of a tax bill that in their own opinion will almost certainly never be raised? That is why I suggest PCG membership is the better deal - no appraisals, merely cover for all contracts you take on.

[TheFaQQer]

If memory serves, Qdos will back date the coverage for previous contracts - as long as they review them and they pass their review, they will insure them.

HTH,
Faqqer

[ChimpMaster]

Thanks all, I'll look into PCG more in depth now.

[malvolio]

Also note the PCG covers you for all contracts within the one subscription. Some of the others used to be on a contract by contract basis, so you need to keep them up for 6 years after you finish and I don't know if that still applies. Others insist on a clear IR35 pass before they take you on, which makes the insurance itself a bit redundant if you think about it.

By all means look around, but make sure you are comparing like with like: and I still think it's hard to beat the PCG deal