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Sapphire umbrella company

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    Sapphire umbrella company

    Attended a webinar last week arranged by an agency and Sapphire umbrella company and it was all doom and gloom.

    Has anyone had any experience of using Sapphire? Agency were pushing them...

    They showed some figures and they looked off in that there was not muchh differeece between limited and umbrella take home...my undertstanding is the difference is significant not what they were showing...that got at all and they glossed over this.

    In an illustration they showed that they deduct Employer's NI from the candidates pay....the question was asked why it is not the employer's responsibility to pay the Employer's NI they said it is up to the candidate to talk to the client and ask if they will pay the employer's NI cost ...seems odd...someone has to pay and agency won't so it appears that the candidate is going to be stung for this....surely that is up to the employer to pay those costs by definition?

    Lastly no good news from agency they seem to want to deem all roles inside, substitution being the main block no client would just let a random do the work as a substitute...they had no positive things to day on that score...

    Was bad news all round ...

    #2
    ErNICs have to be paid. As far as the client is concerned, it will come out of their overall budget for filling the role. How that is broken down further down the chain, and how the intermediates sell it to their subordinate people is irrelevant.

    You will be paying it regardless of how it is sold. The only variant is whether or not you eventually get anything like the day rate you think you are accepting at the offer stage. So press the agency hard on what your effective day rate is, not what they want you to think it is in case you don't go for the gig.
    Blog? What blog...?

    Comment


      #3
      I think Sapphire have been mentioned on here but Employers NI has been explained endlessly.

      Do a search on the forums using google Sapphire site:contractoruk.com/forums will bring back all the threads on Sapphire. Swap the term for Employer NI and you'll get more threads than you can be bothered to read.

      The bad news has been circulating for about three years now with the Public Sector changes hitting a few years ago and the near miss last year. All this shouldn't be news to you.
      Last edited by northernladuk; 22 February 2021, 14:53.
      'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

      Comment


        #4
        Sapphire are FCSA approved, therefore must be doing everything correctly. </sarcasm>

        I had an illustration from them last year when a potential shove inside was looming. Their first illustration showed salary sacrifice into my pension from the net figure, rather than gross, meaning I didn't benefit from the tax saving. I had to point that out to get them to correct it.

        They charge £5 per week to administer a payment into your own pension, which they take off the net. I queried that this should be from gross (like their margin), but apparently "anything above the margin is vatable and has to come off the net figure".

        I didn't bother to take it any further, as they seemed to give a different answer or use a "different calculation" every time they gave me an updated illustration.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by eatenrifles View Post
          Sapphire are FCSA approved, therefore must be doing everything correctly.

          I had an illustration from them last year when a potential shove inside was looming. Their first illustration showed salary sacrifice into my pension from the net figure, rather than gross, meaning I didn't benefit from the tax saving. I had to point that out to get them to correct it.

          They charge £5 per week to administer a payment into your own pension, which they take off the net. I queried that this should be from gross (like their margin), but apparently "anything above the margin is vatable and has to come off the net figure".

          I didn't bother to take it any further, as they seemed to give a different answer or use a "different calculation" every time they gave me an updated illustration.
          the examples they showed didn't make sense...i didn't come away having any confidence what they were doing was correct...the only answered select questions

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
            I think Sapphire have been mentioned on here but Employers NI has been explained endlessly.

            Do a search on the forums using google Sapphire site:contractoruk.com/forums will bring back all the threads on Sapphire. Swap the term for Employer NI and you'll get more threads than you can be bothered to read.

            The bad news has been circulating for about three years now with the Public Sector changes hitting a few years ago and the near miss last year. All this shouldn't be news to you.
            Thanks, it was news to me and also the 100 plus others on the call...there are a lot of people not aware if the hit they are gonna take...

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by eatenrifles View Post
              "anything above the margin is vatable and has to come off the net figure".
              Glad to see they know how it works then! in simple terms if they call it a "fee" it is Vat-able, if they call it a "margin" it is not! semantics

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by lucyclarityumbrella View Post
                Glad to see they know how it works then! in simple terms if they call it a "fee" it is Vat-able, if they call it a "margin" it is not! semantics
                Seems about the only thing they did get right then...

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