Originally posted by hgtaylor1989
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Ok, first things first - if you work with an umbrella company you will be their employee so you won't be self-employed; if you wanted to work for yourself you would need to set up a Limited Company (sole trader is not really an option). As far as your take home pay goes with theses two options - if you are inside IR35 it will be roughly the same, if you are outside IR35 your take home through your own limited company would be higher than with an umbrella company (more info on that here IR35 Legislation - Advice, Help and Information for UK Contractors)
You say you want to keep as much of your money as possible - there are various ways of doing this in the short term but in the long term you are likely to lose any advantage you had..and then some. A proper umbrella company operates PAYE which means that you are subject to income tax and employee's national insurance contributions; as an employer they are liable for employer's national insurance and they will retain a margin for the work that they do. The contract rate is the umbrella company's income and, from this, they will meet their liabilities. If you decided to work through a Limited Co and you were inside IR35 you would have the PAYE tax liability of both employee and employer which means that you would pay both lots of NIC's from your contract rate.
There are other types of companies that refer to themselves as umbrella companies and these may be the ones that you are looking - more on that here Contractors, don't be fooled by imposter umbrella companies :: Contractor UK
If you look at proper umbrella companies, the quotes that they give you should be exactly the same other than any differences in their margins - don't be fooled by promises of higher take home pay - ultimately it's just asking for trouble
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