Umbrella Company expenses claims

[Epiphone]

It was Prosperity4 wasn't it. Go on, spill the beans

[Lucifer Box]

Harrysp, do the decent thing, act as a responsible citizen and get yourself on over to Reporting Tax Fraud with your friend's details. It's criminal, fraudulent scum like him that push taxes up for all us legitimate hard-working contractors.

[freshblue]

My friend says he was suckered in by umbrella companies practically selling this benefit. Why dont IR do anything about advertising geared towards this?

Many umbrella Companies seem to be able to offer expenses such as travel to work, breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. Are these legitimate?

Yeah right...they made "him" do it! Please do a search.... or are you an Accountant in disguise!?!

[Harrysp]

So something along the lines of picking off the weakest members of the herd thus making the herd i.e. us the contracting family stronger??

I have a mate who is doing exactly the same, claiming for all kinds of things under his umbrella, will he listen will he fook. Has he joined the PCG has he fook, has he set up his own LTD company? has he fook, has he read any of the freely avaliable guides has he fook. He is so dumb he hasnt even come on to these boards to ask any of the dumb questions that some of the newbies ask

These kind of muppets deserve to go down, and not just on Hector lol

[Lucifer Box]

I like it, boredsenseless. Dumbasses like that need to be removed from circulation for the good of the future of the human race.

[boredsenseless]

FFS, show some fecking initiative.

Start here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/ir69.htm

How about this for a plan, next time someone asks the dumb question about can I claim my girlfriends last hairdo or some equally absurd business expense because an um brella said it was okay we should all just go -- yeah sounds like a top idea to me mate!


A few test cases where some idiots get taken to the cleaners would smarten up the whole marketplace

[Lucifer Box]

Many umbrella Companies seem to be able to offer expenses such as travel to work, breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. Are these legitimate?

FFS, show some fecking initiative.

Start here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/ir69.htm

[Cowboy Bob]

My friend says he was suckered in by umbrella companies practically selling this benefit. Why dont IR do anything about advertising geared towards this?

Many umbrella Companies seem to be able to offer expenses such as travel to work, breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. Are these legitimate?

If you read the small print, that is not actually what they're offering. What they're offering is the convenience that *they* (ie. the umbrella company) have dispensation from HMRC to not need to ask you for the receipts. Nowhere will it say that you can claim for expenses that you haven't incurred, and nowhere will it say that you don't have to show receipts for all your expenses if the taxman comes knocking.

So no, they're not breaking the law. They're not telling you everything you need to know about setting up as a contractor (how could they anyway, they'd be there for weeks?) - but then they're not there to hold your hand, they're there to run a business. The onus is on *you* to find out everything you're getting into. If you're not pro-active enough to find out what you're getting yourself into, then you need to ask yourself why you became a contractor.

Believe it or not, most decent contractors aren't in this to make loads of money (though it is nice ), they're doing it because they enjoy the lifestyle of working for themselves as legitimate businesses. Those who get into this as a kind of "get rich quick" scheme are destined for the dreaded knock on the door or brown envelope since the tendency (from what I've seen) is to just chose the scheme that pays the most money after tax.

At the end of the day, if it sounds too good to be true...

[privateeye]

My friend says he was suckered in by umbrella companies practically selling this benefit. Why dont IR do anything about advertising geared towards this?

Many umbrella Companies seem to be able to offer expenses such as travel to work, breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. Are these legitimate?

Your friend was not suckered in, it is blatantly obvious that if they did not incur the expense then they should not claim it. Your friend chose this route because of greed and paying less than their fair share.

I am sure that the IR are watching all the advertising and waiting for when the time is right for them to do something and because it is fraud there is no 6 year time limit as with normal IR investigations so they can take their time.

I think it is also the customers (in this case contractor) responsibility to highlight the way in which these services are advertised if you know them to be misleading.

[AnonymousUser]

My friend says he was suckered in by umbrella companies practically selling this benefit. Why dont IR do anything about advertising geared towards this?

Many umbrella Companies seem to be able to offer expenses such as travel to work, breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. Are these legitimate?

[Lucifer Box]

If your "friend" cannot produce proof of expenditure (receipt, card statement, etc) when challenged by HMRC, then your "friend" will be presented with a bill for the tax owed, plus interest, plus fines (which can be upto 100% of the tax owed depending on how co-operative your "friend" is to the investigation).

The knock on the door could come at any time, or it may never come. That's the risk you take when you are engaging in defrauding the taxpayer. Tell your "friend" to burgle a couple of houses on the way home tomorrow just for good measure. After all, I'm sure if he chooses a nice area the people there can spare a few items and he's not likely to get caught.

Would it amaze your "friend" to know that the only expenses you can legitimately claim are ones you have legitimately incurred wholly and exclusively in the course of your work? Tell your "friend" to surf on over to http://www.hmrc.gov.uk, that has lots of information on what expense categories are claimable.

[freshblue]

Hmmmm

The Revenue would come after "him" rather than the umbrella, they will have a clause somewhere.

Legit expenses.... you can claim with any relevant trading form (brolly, composite, limited) what you actually incur aslong as it is "wholly and exclusively" for the role and will not fall foul of the 24 month rule (do a search).

[AnonymousUser]

I have a friend who is claiming alot of expenses that he hasnt incurred from a notorious Umbrella Company. They are mainly of the accomodation variety. He has been doing this for a long time now on the same contract (over a year), and is getting a bit nervous.

He wants to know what are the chances of getting caught on this and if there is any history of someone getting "done" for this previously.

Also, he is going to move to a different umbrella company and wants to know what expenses can be incurred legitly.

Im sure he would appreciate any help.