Brooksons

Brookson

I would avoid letting Brookson form a Ltd company for you, as when you come to close it they will charge you a minimum of £400 for cessation of accounts, which they fail to mention in any of their documentation

They claim to be a tax advisor, but in my experience as a contractor only provide advice which will maximise their income, not with your best interest in mind, i.e. they advised me to open a Ltd company and use their services, even though I only had a 6 month contract with the agency I work for and now I have to pay extra for Ltd company tax returns and cessation of the Ltd company. They told me it would cost £150 priot to cessation of accounts then they change it to £400 after I have left, with no notification

They will tell you how easy and simple it is to be a Ltd company, but in actual fact it is complicated even with their involvement and involves lots of faffing about

Avoid forming a Ltd company, there are many umbrella companies who provide a good service and all you have to do is fill in your timesheets and expense forms, I learnt the hard way, I followed Brooksons advice!

[Cowboy Bob]

From the article I posted about composites - from this site BTW, written by Lawspeed.

A contractor operating this way appears therefore to be massively exposed to IR35 risk.

Bob

[Rebecca Loos]

well I was assuming we are talking outside of IR35 - is life worth living inside IR35?

[Cowboy Bob]

Composites aren't that bad, it all depends on how much % of your rate you want to take home.

http://www.contractoruk.com/ir35/do_...fect_ir35.html

Bob

[Bagpuss]

Dignatio anyone?


"We understand that around 250 contractor are affected by the collapse of this company, which apparently used an employee benefit trust (EBT) as a mechanism to provide contractors with high post tax income. Details are not yet clear but it seems that the company has been hit with greater than expected tax demands from the Revenue, which suggests that the Revenue has challenged the tax deductabilty of the company’s contributions to the EBT."

[Underscore2]

So why dont

the all go permie. Then there will be less of us and GB wont be as bothered.

[Rebecca Loos]

partimer, you are quite right - but in essence I am right too: for one reason or another you are scared of GB and you are doing as much as you can to comply to the letter with the IR - and not only on current legislation but also on what legislation might be in the future (since they can apply penalties retrospectively, you are right to be scared). This is what I called scared tulipless. OK the word is harsh but true. And yes, you and many others have valid reasons to behave this way, I fully understand that.

[partimer]

being a bit harsh

>scared tulipless
I think that's being a little harsh for the bods on this board.
It's a case of how much risk/benefit ratio you're willing to take.

With Gordon Clown's bit of legislation allowing the scumb@gs to go back retrospectively to collect taxes, you could be in a right mess. Just look at S660a as an example. Not to mention his attack on off shore savings.

All Clown has to do is come up with a "terrorists using composite companies" and you could have everything taken away from you. (It could happen.)

That's the sort of risk/benefit ratio I'm taking about.
Not everybody can get on a plane with an one way ticket to Rio. I'm sure there are people on this board with homes, families, etc. who simply can't risk that in order to take the p1ss with the IR.

All down to your own personnal circumstances and if you're willing to risk it ...
(I have no interest what anybody does since I don't know you)

[Rebecca Loos]

Composites aren't that bad, it all depends on how much % of your rate you want to take home.

Most contractors on this board are scared tulipless of the IR and will not accept any scheme that offers them more than 70% of their rate. Strange but true.

If you are outside IR35 it's worth using a composite if you don't want to run your own company.

[monkeygeorge]

I am a disguised employee and I want to pay less tax (legally, of course).

So what's so bad about composites, or is it just a knee-jerk reaction for people to say 'don't touch with a barge pole'?

[Mailman]

Dont waste your time or money and form a real company...unless of course you are a disguised employee?

mailman

[monkeygeorge]

Has anyone used the composite Brooksons, and any comments?

Thanks,
George