I can echo most of the advice here.
IR35 has been an onslaught for years and why I left contracting altogether as a Mechanical Engineer. There WERE advantages financially, but the HMRC don’t like that you use the law to make more money, despite still paying Corp Tax and Income tax. It has been the HMRC’s will to bend the rules to make you pay more and they got slapped by the courts, as they are just aiming at making us all PAYE! I think it was summed up quite nicely when they had to admit they didn’t even understand the rules themselves!
IR35 was really brought in to tackle the Software Engineers that were creaming £500 a day and paying less NI/Income Tax! The little man contractors all got ■■■■■■ over also because of them, rather than the HMRC focussing on foreign companies that use known loopholes to avoid paying Billions in Corporation Tax by moving their debt around…mention no names AMAZON/STARBUCKS! But they got let off because they build factories and employ UK workers.
I still have a LTD company and it’s VAT registered, but contracting isn’t my main business. There are specific rules to remain outside IR35, like business cards, embroidered workwear, mileage logs for personal vehicles, receipts for everything. In essence, you are not an employee - My day started as soon as I left my front door till I got home, I worked on projects with no set start/end times, I claimed mileage, food, clothing, tools, pint down the pub, training courses and £3 a week to use my home as an office. You can even claim 24p a mile to cycle to the site!
If you employed an accountant now, they would tell you if you’re setting up to run the business ‘driving’, you can claim back 3 years costs, so you would get back the tax on your training and carry over that cost as a loss incl any other courses you did, as long as you were running it as a business before your date of incorporation. Remember that the HMRC publish ‘guidelines’ which you would follow, but an accountant will say you can claim for everything and submit a return based on their interpretation, you then think you are in the money till you’re visited by HMRC.
You don’t need an accountant or a company bank account if you have a good understanding of Tax and Accounts/Bookkeeping/VAT/Banking. I do all of my Accounts/CT600/VAT returns/PAYE/Pensions and it can be a minefield, remember THEY make TAX TAXING despite their BS adverts! Having an Acct/Company bank account would cost me c£200 a month, not worth it for me at this time.
You just have to remember that the HMRC are a bunch of Accountants supporting the employment of other Accountants! If an Accountant on £80-120 a month makes a cockup in your figures and you sign it, you are in court not them!
My advice, for an extra £2-4hr and no holiday pay, is always go PAYE!