You can only claim the first 10k miles from HMRC in any tax year. You complete a form P87, generally though they’ll simply stick what you’re claiming onto the following year’s tax code (even if you tick the box on the form for payment by cheque!)
Derf:
You can only claim the first 10k miles from HMRC in any tax year. You complete a form P87, generally though they’ll simply stick what you’re claiming onto the following year’s tax code (even if you tick the box on the form for payment by cheque!)
The first 10k at the higher rate of 40 something ppm, any miles after that will be accounted for at a much lower rate.
LIBERTY_GUY:
They generally refer to these as a travel and subsistence scheme. HMRC have decided most of these schemes are illegal (ditto many ‘umbrella’ payment schemes). Reed employment was reported as having to pay back over £100 MILLION to HMRC through running one of these schemes.In reality they are a salary sacrifice, where you’ll typically be about a fiver a week better off, whereas the agency will profit by five times that amount by reduced NI payments. Downside is if you come to claim any benefits in the future that are based on earnings, they will take the lower figure and you’ll lose out.
Anything an agency ‘offers’, is usually to benefit the agency…
Tax-Office checked me last Year for previouse year when i did Maddison and i got a Check of,think over £40.- if i remember right.
But i claimed traveling by recipe from Bus and Taxi and no fuel.
Derf:
You can only claim the first 10k miles from HMRC in any tax year. You complete a form P87, generally though they’ll simply stick what you’re claiming onto the following year’s tax code (even if you tick the box on the form for payment by cheque!)
Wrong. You can claim all you do however only the first 10,000 miles are payable at 45p per mile. After that any mileage is paid at 20p per mile.
They’ll only stick what you claim on to next years tax code if that is what you tell them to do.
Ader1:
I have signed up to a couple of agencies in the past (for which I didn’t get any work for) and they both mentioned a scheme whereby you can claim back certain things lik travel to work and also training and protective clothing from your tax. What’s this called? Do you hve to be self-employed for this? Anyway, I’ve been offered some work from Driver Hire and I haven’t spoken to the guys about it yet but does anybody here know if I can be part of this ‘scheme’ when ‘employed’ by them? Looking forward to your replies.
The scheme they are talking about is being paid through an Umbrella Company, where they class you as employed and take NI and tax from you on a weekly basis and pay this over to HMRC.
The work related expenses are claimed as tax & NI relief. You can claim anything work related on a weekly basis and this should reduce your tax.
LIBERTY_GUY:
war1974:
wow can some of the anti agency drivers take a day off from spouting crap?ltd / umbrella is by far a better way to go (I work in recruitment but am also a driver) If I was going to work as a driver again I would go ltd/umbrella.
So, if you are being truly honest, you’ll no doubt now tell us about the benefits the agencies themselves benefit from pushing drivers onto umbrella or limited company schemes.
Apart from savings on processing payroll, there is also the fact that as a driver you would potentially end up with reduced benefits in the future if you are classed as ‘self employed’. This could be as a result of injury, or loss of license. You also of course have a ‘grey area’ as to liability if the vehicle or load is damaged or lost, which is not something that would arise as a PAYE employee.
If folks have any doubts about these schemes, a lot of the accountancy web sites will clarify the implications of these schemes.
The benefits the agency has from putting you through an umbrella company is that they would then pay you a self employed rate of pay and pass over the EMPLOYERS NI cost, which should be explained to you. So they wouldn’t be paying EMPLOYERS NI it would be paid out of your rate of pay aswell as holiday pay and employees NI
CWCSolutions:
The benefits the agency has from putting you through an umbrella company is that they would then pay you a self employed rate of pay and pass over the EMPLOYERS NI cost, which should be explained to you. So they wouldn’t be paying EMPLOYERS NI it would be paid out of your rate of pay aswell as holiday pay and employees NI
Are you new at this? They wouldn’t be passing over employers NI cost at all, they’d merely be paying a supplier.
Whether or not you pay employers and employees NI is entirely dependent on how the trading entity is set up. If you set it up as a Ltd Company and issue shares that you own wholly, you pay yourself a weekly wage below the lower threshold for employee/employers NI and you draw down the remaining profit as a share dividend then there is no payment of employer or employee NI.
right sorry for the delay but here goes with some form of reply.
benefits of umbrella / ltd is yes the agency saves on things like holiday pay ni etc. but the drivers can claim a lot more than if paye. regarding payroll it still has to be done so no it doesn’t save time and costs. the driver also benefits with an increased rate of pay.
I pay extra to drivers who are ltd or umbrella its negotiated with the driver individually (as in the real business world you negotiate and AGREE a rate that’s acceptable to all parties some are happy with £1 extra, some want more, some want more than I actually charge!).
poor old me GIVING them their holidays (I could have quite easily collected them and not paid, none of them would have been any wiser but I took my own time to sort through who was owed what and make sure they were paid as I am not a thief and yes I paid them as they had earned them. but when you work for 2 or 3 as I have in the past its easy to forget previous months worked etc.)
for every bad agency there are some decent ones out there and they wont go away despite the best intentions of a lot of drivers on here 
companies need flexibility to increase and lower with peaks and troughs.
if you want to be a sole trader and get a group of you together why don’t all you anti agency drivers go out speak to the clients win the business agree rates then watch as one of your mates/ex colleagues undercuts you because he has a family car dog cat etc. and see what its like? plus setting up accounts for each client, invoicing taking the hit when you have paid 2 or 3 drivers for the last 3 months and the firm goes bump?
or even better go out and win one of those zero hours contracts 
I know I will never win on here but I am totally honest with any driver that comes in to see me and if I have not got any chance of offering work or helping them I will say and advise even help if I can.
this morning I spent an hour with a driver who used to hold a class 2 but got injured and gave him advice and explained that he may well be able to driver auto vehicles (something he didn’t realise were available on class 2’s) what his best options were (again advised against agency work as he is restricted and it may have put him into a difficult position, change of run etc.), he has now gone away to contact firms I believe may be able to assist him back into driving and away from cleaning which he hates.
but we are all robbing scumbags who only care about ripping off drivers and placing them into dead end job I guess
war1974:
right sorry for the delay but here goes with some form of reply.benefits of umbrella / ltd is yes the agency saves on things like holiday pay ni etc. but the drivers can claim a lot more than if paye.
ABSOLUTE UNADULTERATED COW MANURE. Drivers cannot claim a lot more than if PAYE on agency. Please tell me what these magic tax allowances are other than the running costs of the business.
regarding payroll it still has to be done so no it doesn’t save time and costs. the driver also benefits with an increased rate of pay.
One which does not cover the expenses and what they lose.
poor old me GIVING them their holidays (I could have quite easily collected them and not paid, none of them would have been any wiser but I took my own time to sort through who was owed what and make sure they were paid as I am not a thief and yes I paid them as they had earned them. but when you work for 2 or 3 as I have in the past its easy to forget previous months worked etc.)
You are LEGALLY REQUIRED TO GIVE ALL PAYE EMPLOYEES PAID HOLIDAY. It wasn’t done out of the goodness of your heart so don’t try that one.
if you want to be a sole trader and get a group of you together why don’t all you anti agency drivers go out speak to the clients win the business agree rates then watch as one of your mates/ex colleagues undercuts you because he has a family car dog cat etc. and see what its like?
I found it incredibly easy. I just picked up the phone and rang around all the firms I used to drive for on agency. I was charging £12/hr basic in East Yorkshire in 2005.
plus setting up accounts for each client, invoicing
Takes 2 minutes in Sage. Doesn’t take much longer to knock up a spreadsheet in Excel.
taking the hit when you have paid 2 or 3 drivers for the last 3 months and the firm goes bump?
Risks of being in business.
I know I will never win on here
Not whilst you try and make out you’re doing drivers a favour by paying them what they’re legally entitled to.
but we are all robbing scumbags who only care about ripping off drivers and placing them into dead end job I guess
Those who push drivers down the route of Ltd/Umbrella and only pay £1/hr more are and that apparently includes you by your own admission.
I spoke to the agency I’ve been working for this week earlier today. They said that somebody from this ‘accounting’ company would phone me and somebody did to get my bank details. I get paid £9 per hour which isn’t bad for around here. The company which will be paying me is called ‘Fairgate’. Anybody know of them or had dealings with them? I suppose I should be asking about holidays. They are going to send me through some introductory literature so that will be interesting. I asked the agency how Fairgate would be paid had I was told they take £10 from my salary per week. Anything I should be asking them when I phone them tommorow?
Ader1:
Anything I should be asking them when I phone them tommorow?
Tell them there has been an error and you don`t wish to use their services
Ive just had two agency literally BEGGING for work and forced to use the umbrella scheme out of nowhere. They claim that it is due to Negligence insurance being the sole reason not financial gain and claim I will be better off. They will not even make an issue of pay unless you mention this to them. All I get from the phone salesperson at the other end is a load of long winded bullcrap
Can anyone tellme
Wwhat happens if I am claiming benefits how does this work out?
Who is liable for correct payment what grounds do I have legally if they decide to mess up the payslip to work in there favor
The more I think bout this I decide not to work and to wait for some reputable work with simple PAYE no problems this is becoming a rarity as many are make it obligatory when signing up
If u insist on going PAYE a lot of agencies will give in if they need the drivers (been there).
You can claim travel and subsistence for travel to a temporary place of work (even PAYE).
The amounts agencies claim automatically,
HOWEVER, you are only SUPPOSED TO claim the actual expense, this is actually the maximum amount HMRC allow you to claim without showing agency(or umbrella) receipt…If the taxman where to investigate your or their affairs, they will expect receipts to have been kept.
I’m now a Limted co driver, Think umbrella companies will just be trouble, and they do charge a fortune, i.e 30 quid a week, when you can pay accountant couple hundred a year, get paid more, claim more (includin a tasty 8% a your turnover in change fae VAT man) n pay less tax.
Happy days
Umbrella costs £490 a year. Tiny bit more than an accountant with less hassel. Not £30 p/w. Give it a try you will be better of than on Paye.
I think there are clear battle lines starting to appear on party politics regarding this area.
If you want the whole Ltd/Umbrella/Zero hours thing ripped up, then you’d better look at voting Labour.
If you are an employer, and want an easy ride, then vote con-servative.
If you want cheapo costs in running outside the country, then Libdem is more up your street.
If you want to kick the whole damned lot into touch, and start again - then vote UKIP.
In this age of more “flexibility” expected out of staff than ever before - the damned wages should be skyrocketing already.
Instead, we’ve got third-party advertised “jobs” that are nothing but temp work with that old buzzline “Temporary ongoing” and no regular hours unless they are as close to minimum wages as possible.
THEN take off further deductions for salary sacrifice/umbrella/employers NI which will screw up your pension years from now, and what you end up with is a government might-as-well-be-gangster-run system that allows people in suits to enslave the actual working population who only ever wanted to earn enough money to pay the bills, and have something left over for themselves.
Is it any wonder that more and more people are electing to have a larger percentage of their income made up from benefits - which are non-taxable and you don’t pay a commission to get?
Work doesn’t pay anymore. Current government has made a mockery of the system that Gordon Brown originally set up. Benefits are not supposed to replace wages paid by employers.
A progressive government right now would charge the Earth to create a new job, and very little after that. This way, setting up all these minimum wage jobs would cost employers a fortune, but you pay progressively less to set up a higher paid job.
It’s the NIC system that needs changing - not the tax system, other than putting everyone back onto an even playing field again by scrapping ALL tax offsets, which then penalises EVERYONE who’s “not efficient” in what they do, and rewards people who work locally to where they live, and refuses to commute to poorly paid jobs, cluttering up the roads in the process. 
bob96:
Can anyone tellme
Wwhat happens if I am claiming benefits how does this work out?
Same as before. You will get wage slips from the umbrella company. Only thing is now your income for tax and therefore for benefits will be lower so you’ll get more benefits.
Who is liable for correct payment what grounds do I have legally if they decide to mess up the payslip to work in there favor
Your umbrella company. If the agency don’t pay, your umbrella company has to sue them. This is where it gets real sticky if it goes wrong.
m_attt:
Umbrella costs £490 a year. Tiny bit more than an accountant with less hassel. Not £30 p/w. Give it a try you will be better of than on Paye.
Really? Umbrella you mentioned is a tenner a week or 25p per hour out of the first 40hrs. Statutory holiday pay is 12% of your hourly basic wage. If you’re on £7/hr on PAYE and you get an extra £1/hr please tell me how 84p holiday pay you lose out on +25p umbrella admin fee is made up for by being paid an extra £1/hr. If you do less than 40hrs in a week or get paid more than £7/hr it gets even worse as that extra £1 an hour is even less capable of covering what you lose and what it costs you.
Other than the umbrella company admin fees there’s not a single expense you claim via the umbrella company that you cannot claim on PAYE working for agency.
Winseer:
If you want the whole Ltd/Umbrella/Zero hours thing ripped up, then you’d better look at voting Labour.
Why? They started and massively expanded under Labour. Labour did nothing to stop it in the 13 years they were in power.
m_attt:
Umbrella costs £490 a year.
“most” of the agency driver I know who use “umbrella schemes” pay around £19 + VAT which is around £22.80 per week. Which works out in excess of £1000 per year
some of my expenses
Tax return 2012-2913
Qty Cost Total
AA
Bank charges 12 £2.00 £24.00
camera, photos 0
Car keys 0
Clothes 1 £100.00 £100.00
CoHo filing 2 £14.00 £28.00
computer 1 £335.98 £335.98
CPC training 1 £65.00 £65.00
daily subsistence 95 £13.50 £1,282.50
daily subs early 0
Entertaining 0
French trip 0
glasses 1 £259.00 £259.00
Gloves 5 £2.50 £12.50
goggles 0
hard hats 0
Hospital 0
insurance PL 1 £56.18 £56.18
insure sik& unemp 0
Journals 12 £5.50 £66.00
Laundry 52 £2.00 £104.00
Licences 0
Maps 0
Medical exam 0
mileage 6872 £0.45 £3,092.40
mileage excess 0
Mobile phones 12 £20.00 £240.00
Office use 52 £10.00 £520.00
overnight (cab) 0
overnight (no cab) 0
Parking 0
Phone hardware 0
Phone, fax calls 0.5 £876.00 £438.00
Postage 52 £5.00 £260.00
PPE 0
printer 1 £59.99 £59.99
Printer cartridge 1 £40.00 £40.00
Sat-nav 0
security a-virus* 0
stationery 52 £0.50 £26.00
Tacho rolls 0
Tolls 0
Training 1 £330.00 £330.00
Union 1 £153.40 £153.40
Tools £0.00
Internet* £0.00
Professional 1 £2,400.00 £2,400.00
Taxis £0.00
Hotel £0.00
Total £9,892.95