M7 COS

That's quite a cool perk!

lamb chops

Can’t decide if I should leave my perm job where I can work from home 2-3 days a week and start a contracting role.. Would hope to get 30-40 an hour doing exchange 5.5 migration/ design work.

We are very quiet at the moment and its got very laid back which makes it hard to leave but you get lazy. May hold out for some redundancy if things don’t pick up

Cola

ASMG - Ask for Briony on 0870 620 1000

I regularly take home 90% and the lowest was 83%.

And I've been ltd and umbrella and this is far the best deal with stuff all paperwork.

If you go with them, please tell 'em Cola sent ya

Jim Galbally

chops, you can get Ł40 an hour doing ex5.5 migration work

fuck me i've got to get me some of that pie

boon

Where do you find these contracts? Is there somewhere online, fancy a slice of this meself

neilm

There isnt a lot of that work left really boys... which is why it fetches the money, not many people have got good up to date 5.5 skills... because they've been running 2000 or 2003 for years.....

Cossiep

Someone please put me straight with this..............

I'm a freelancer (construction) not IT admittedly, and also use an umbrella company ''Prosperit4'' and I can't see how anyone can be taking home between 80-90% of their gross earnings. How can someone ''taking home'' i.e. money in back pocket be paying employers and employees NI contributions along with income tax all in for just a 10% deduction in their gross earnings, that's not taking into account the umbrella companies fees. Sounds like fraud to me I get 70% of my GROSS take home, if anyone is getting more please let me know how.

northerner

I suppose with expenses (mileage, etc) factored in, you could get close to the 80-90% take home. When I was looking at a contract in Swindon, when taking into account allowable expenses, it worked out that I wouldn't be paying much or if any tax at all (NI still has to be paid either way).

My problem is that i'm a tech arc for a big 5 consultancy house and have to be flexible with location to get a decent contract.

Cossiep

Just been on Parsols site and used their net pay calculator (which always gives the VERY best scenario) and using my hourly rate they recon 71% return for my circumstances.

This post started off with a guy saying he's with parasol and takes home 80%...... going by their calculator that means an hourly rate of Ł14 which fine if that's what you are on but seems very low for high flying IT types.

To get the 90% take that Cola talks of would (according to their calculator) mean an hourly rate of approx Ł8 you couldn't run an Escort Cossie on that I know from experience that most umbrellas are the same so for people to be taking home 90% of their gross pay is rediculous.... you cannot expect to have all your deductions taken care off for a mere 10% (regardless of tax write offs)........ this all sounds like billy bullshit to me

northerner

You've got to remember that the expenses you can claim can be offset against any tax liabilities.

boon

It was the "earnings of 120K" that got me interested. I'd be happy with 50% of that fekker!

Cola

Have heard bad bad things about Prosp, but then I haven't worked with them directly.

Mine uses an Isle Of Man company as there are different tax rules out there. So I get paid a meagre salary of around 675 a month, take home of about 625. I then get a 'loan payment' for the remainder every six weeks (it's a killer!!!) but as it's a 'loan payment' there is v little tax. Thus after this paltry figure, the tax and NI on my low salary and the company fees I still take home a fair whack. It also means that there are no expenses etc, so no scrabbling for receipts.

But, if you don't believe me or I'm just very bad at explaining things, give ASMG a call. They're much better at explaining than me. But in all my years contracting (11 - Christ how old am I?!) this is by far the least stressful way of doing it. They even do my tax returns.

CossieP - as explained it's not an umbrella. And lol - I DO run an Escos on it

If anyone wants to know owrt else feel free to drop me a PM

Cossiep

Fair enough Cola, sounds a LOT more plausable now

I personally would be slightly worried about offshore money and tax issues even if only in the Isle of Man and loan payments being used as salaried contributions but it certainly explains the high percentage take home.

neilm

Cola..... getting a loan payment from a company, whereever they are, is classed as a perk and as such there will be tax to pay on it, not to mention that it should be repaid by the employee at some point.

You might not be paying any now.... but after an Inland Revenue inspection you would be... and remember they can go back 7 years.....


If I was you I'd get some legal advice on this.


The best tip I can give any of you who have your own business is join the Federation of Small Business....

Why ? Because it only costs Ł100 a year and you get free insurance against an Inland Revenue or VAT inspection up to the value of Ł50,000.

To put this into some sort of perspective, the average accountant will charge Ł50 per hour or thereabouts, any form of Inland Revenue or VAT Inspection could take days to sort....

Cola

Hi Unc

Well I had exactly the same concerns but ASMG have some of the best tax people. Their main business is to sports starts etc and have just opened the market for lowly IT staff As for them coming to get me they insure you against future problems but rarely need to pay out. They had a case of a worker being harrassed by the Revenue because they didn't like the tax he was paying, it did end up going to court but there was nothing the could do about it. They ARE looking to change the rules to block this loophole, but it will take a couple of years

PS: I do actually pay tax on my loan anyway.. it's just v low in the IOM!

M7 COS

Thanks for all of the replies by the way.

Made for some interesting reading.

northerner

how much would a perm role have to pay to temp you away from contracting?

Anonymous

Good advice!

I'm not a contractor, I run my own business. Ł60 an hour is still cheap up here (for now )

I just quoted for a server swap and 10 new workstations for next month - previous company wanted Ł190 an hour for weekends.... Bargain...! Guess who is doing the work?

Jim Galbally

190 an hour, to swap over a server and put a few desktops in? fuck me i get paid less than that to do the WHOLE JOB

northerner

A quick question for the contractors out there - I'm thinking of leaving a perm job and contracting for 9 months then taking 3 months out to develop property.

Do employers look negatively on people who take 3 month breaks?

Also, is it quite difficult to find contracts on-demand?

cos jon

I thought these umbrella companies 'claim' a salary that you pay tax and NI on and the remainder is paid as a loan payment, so the smaller the salary you 'claim' the higher your total earnings will be ????, so if the umbrella company claimed you were earning 5K a year you would only pay tax and NI on about 200 quid a year (first 4800 is tax free) ??