Free Umbrella Companies

December 15, 2010

A free umbrella company sounds like an extremely tempting prospect but is it an offer that is just simply too good to be true?
The important thing to remember is that these companies are there to make money in the same way as any other business. They must be making money somehow otherwise that company just [...]

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1st Charity Event – the London Marathon

March 22, 2010

On 26th April Glen Reeve, with the support and sponsorship of ContractorUmbrella, will be running for 26 miles; just imagine running 26 miles! For most of us the thought of running for a bus is exhausting – the marathon course is further than the distance between England and France ! So why is Glen doing [...]

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ContractorUmbrella’s Charity Plans for 2010

February 10, 2010

In 2010 our members of staff will be either running, walking, jumping out of planes or hosting an online silent auction depending on their age, fitness, ability and degree of sanity. To make things even more interesting (or possibly dangerous) we are asking for suggestions for fund raising events that we can carry out over the course of [...]

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Scale Rate Payments (or Daily Allowance)

November 25, 2009

I for one, consider it good news that HMR&C are considering asking for receipts to prove scale rate expense claims are warranted. This might help to put an end to the misleading marketing claims made by certain Umbrella Companies who are making promises of 80 or even 85% of their gross income value.
HMRC originally introduced [...]

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Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Regulations 2003

November 16, 2009

The regulations were introduced to give low-skilled agency workers protection from being exploited by work seeker companies (employment agencies). Contractors were however also being included within this legislation, although an option to ‘opt-out’ of the legislation was agreed, which caused confusion within the industry and amongst individuals so the government proposed to update and further [...]

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Unscrupulous Umbrella Companies

November 4, 2009

If you are going to use the services of an Umbrella Company to handle your pay, why would an estimated take home pay figure be more important than the service you are likely to receive?  
I personally blame the unscrupulous Umbrella Companies who suggest that they can net contractors a higher take home pay. This [...]

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Tax saving scheme or financial russian roulette?

October 27, 2009

It is human nature that people will look for ways to save money and advertisements promising 85% or even 90% take home pay from your earnings will always be tempting. So, is it possible? Yes, definitely. Is it risk free? Definitely not? In fact, you can quite safely say that the risks attached to ‘tax saving’ schemes are astronomically high.

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Umbrella Company Take Home Pay

October 26, 2009

One of the most common questions that I am asked is how an umbrella company can ‘maximise’ a contractors’ earnings; the answer is that it can’t. All umbrella companies operate in exactly the same way and all are governed by rules and regulations that are applied by HM Revenue and Customs.
That said, I am sure [...]

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Retrospective Tax

October 26, 2009

Anyone who has seen the film Minority Report will understand the concept of punishment for a crime before it has happened based on the visions of the thought police. A thought provoking fantasy, one would think, without any basis in reality…….until now.
It is common knowledge that HMR&C are currently exploring the many uses for retrospective [...]

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Contractor and Freelancer Advice

October 26, 2009

There have been so many questions by new contractors about umbrella companies and the way that they work that I thought I would start a blog to try and answer the most common questions. Firstly and most importantly all umbrella companies are governed by the same rules. All will process your payments through PAYE (Pay [...]

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