There are some common misconceptions about how an umbrella company works, and they can be surprisingly pervasive. If you’re employed by an umbrella company, or you’re a contractor considering the umbrella option, it’s important that you understand what an umbrella company really does. In this article we’ll explain what we do, and hopefully arm you against some of those myths.
IR35 has been a hot topic in the contracting world for some time, and if you’re contracting as a sole trader you might be wondering what it’s all about and if it affects you. IR35 is concerned with the employment status of contractors who work through limited companies, so it doesn’t affect sole traders, but that doesn’t mean sole traders don’t have to consider their employment status.
As you might expect, HMRC receive a lot of strange excuses for late submission of self-assessment tax returns. Slightly more surprising of our dour and serious tax authority, is that they also release an annual list of the worst ones, to allow people like us to point and laugh at them while wondering what they were thinking.
Unless they class as a small private company, your end client will be responsible for determining your IR35 status from April 2020. Your IR35 status makes a big difference to your income, and to your client’s costs, so it’s important that they get it right. As a contractor, it’s important to realise that you can still have an effect on how the reform affects you, and that you ultimately still have a choice about when, where, how and for whom you decide to provide your services.
The end of the year, when it seems almost everyone is winding down and looking forward to the festive season, can be one of the hardest times for contracting. You might be facing unavoidable downtime as your clients close down for Christmas, at the same time as the additional expense and pressure that comes with the festive season, while the self-assessment and tax payment deadlines lurk at the end of January.
