Reply to: Not sure, Umbrella or Ltd ?

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Scaremongeriing Alert Alert Alert.

Danger Will Robinson!

Yes, yes, yes very droll

[prozak]

Before working out figures work out if you will be outside IR35 - no point comparing brolly PAYE with Ltd divs if you will be inside - like comparing apples with pears

Scaremongeriing Alert Alert Alert.

Danger Will Robinson!

[Andrew at Boox]

Also check if the proposed accountants have an online portal where you can manage your Ltd company outside of business hours. This is often thrown in free with online contractor accountants and is very helpful for when you need to get personal things done in your own time (and from any location in fact!)

[Wary]

I've phoned an accountant and asked him lots of terribly stupid questions and I'm going to go with a limited company I think. The accountant said he'd pretty much take all my worries away for £170 a month, which sounds great.

Peace and regards,

Joe !

This is very expensive. Try Nixon Williams, who really will do pretty much everything for you including providing you with a LTD Company (for free) and initiating the set-up of a company bank account. Can't remember the exact monthly fee but it is less that £100 pcm.

[Wanderer]

To be perfectly honest JoeyD, if you have to ask "Umbrella or LTD" then the answer is probably that they should go Umbrella. Umbrella is the simplest way to trade and you can sleep easy knowing your tax is all paid and you don't have to worry about all the admin overhead and legal responsibilities of running a company.

If at some time in the future you have done enough research to understand all the ins and outs of running a company and you are confident about your status as being in business of your own account rather than working as an employee, then it may be time to consider switching to a LTD company...

Avoid these offshore "schemes" like the plague though...

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Before working out figures work out if you will be outside IR35 - no point comparing brolly PAYE with Ltd divs if you will be inside - like comparing apples with pears

[prozak]

Just ran your numbers quickly.

Difference between LTD - small salary + dividends

and

total PAYE - i.e. Umbrella

is about £500 a month.

[prozak]

Let me get this right.

Your rate is 180 a day?

You may as well go Umbrella. I think the hassle / benefit of LTD wont be worth it (just my opinion, I've never run the numbers for a 180 a day rate)

Buy yourself a book called "salary vs dividends" from the tax cafe.

It will educate you on the different scenarios.

Any accountant worth their salt would have already steered you in the right direction without charging you - unless they are taking you for a sucker. Even if that means they are passing on a client.

[captainham]

Great, so now I'm the only one who appears to have called somebody a rude word.

Didn't mean it Jessica, you know I didn't, I just knew you didn't mean what the OP thought you did

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

I've now discovered how to wink

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Don't really think it's appropriate to call a potential client a w*nker, do you ?

Think I might stick with the £170/month guy if that's your attitude

Oh god, I'm so so sorry and thick. I wanted a winking emoticon, as in wink with the eye. I didn't reallise "Winker" was "W*****".

I did think it was a strange movement for winking.

Not aimed at you at all.

[captainham]

Don't really think it's appropriate to call a potential client a w*nker, do you ?

Think I might stick with the £170/month guy if that's your attitude

Easy Tiger...she was referring to herself as she touts for business!

I get the impression (from an earlier post) that you might have missed my post at the bottom of page 1 too, with a whole load of accountant recommendations; here's the thread: http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...-requests.html

[JoeyD]

Anything over £100 a month is probably OTT ( nothing to do with the fact thats what I charge of course )

Don't really think it's appropriate to call a potential client a w*nker, do you ?

Think I might stick with the £170/month guy if that's your attitude

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Thanks Gare The Vans.

I've made another couple of calls now and it looks like I can get this a bit cheaper.

Anything over £100 a month is probably OTT ( nothing to do with the fact thats what I charge of course )

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Hi All,

Newbie here so be gentle.

Been offered my first contract and don't know whether to use an Umbrella Company or start a Limited Company.

My agent suggested that I use a company who does something with off shore tax havens or something but I didn't understand it. He told me it was risk free and I would get 84.5% of my rate back with no tax or something.

I'm sure someone on this forum must have heard of all this stuff before and would appreciate some advice.

Kind regards,

Joe.

Run - don't walk - the other way!