Changing Umbrella before end of tax year?

[gruntling]

I'm very unhappy with my current (large, well known and useless) umbrella agency and want to change ASAP (probably to Clarity Umbrella).

I'm currently "between contracts" and was thinking about doing it now, but was wondering if there is any advantage to waiting until the end of the tax year?

I've also a war chest locked up in a LTD company and was wondering if there is a tax efficient way of closing it down and putting the money in a pension.

I know this is really an accountant question, but my accountant changes regularly and is associated with a large, well known and useless sister company to the umbrella.

[malvolio]

No reason not to, you could always ask Lucy at Clarity for her advice on the issues that may arise.

As for getting money out, there's no reason not to dump cash into a SIPP or other pension fund, subject to the £40k a year limit (which can be backdated if you haven't done anything to date), and then close the company down. How you do that depends on the amount left in the company; you could divi it out over the coming years, close the company down formally, keep it open and lob £40k a year into your pension fund, take a salary to top up your income, whatever.

Tax efficiency, however, is becoming a bit of a chimera...

[Peoplesoft bloke]

No tax reason to wait for a new tax year - if there was people would be all be changing employers at one point (anyone old enough to remember the whitsun weddings? - thought not) in the year.