I’ve had a number of PM’s from interested parties regarding potential earnings through Nova.
This is the breakdown of my first “weekly income summary”, exactly as it’s laid out on the sheet :
Administered Employer Company : XXXXXXXXXXXXXX LTD Company Registration Number : XXXXXXXX Nova Trading Company : LGV Class Drivers Number of Shares Held : 1 Ordinary
Date : 30/09/2005
Gross Company Receipts This Week (ie. On top) : £777.14[/b] Company Income, Expenses and Other Details : Gross receipts less Gross Salary/Fees : £583.14 Plus Credit Adjustments : £0.00 Bonus : £0.00 Less Debit Adjustments : £30.00 (one off set up fee) Nova Fee : £25.00 (weekly fee is gross is over £400) Accident Insurance : £1.95 Employer’s NIC : £12.86 Corporation Tax : £97.53 ---- £415.80 Payment Details[/b]. Net Salary/Fees : £166.00 Add Surplus/Deficit Before Adjustments as above : £415.80 — Surplus/Deficit This Week : £581.80 Expenses[/b] (I didn’t submit any for the first week, so these were c/f. No idea what these two amounts are below) Allocated this Week : £1.95 Tax offset by Expenses : £0.37 Expenses Carried Forward : £0.00 PAYSLIP[/b] Employee/Director : (me) NI Number : XXXXXXXXX Tax Code : 489L-W1 Week Number : 26 Date : 30/09/2005 Gross Salary/Fees : £194.00 Less PAYE Tax : £16.95 Employee’s NIC : £11.05 Add Tax Credits : £0.00 Attachments : £0.00 Net Salary : £166.00 YTD Gross Pay : £194.00 YTD Tax Paid : £16.95 YTD NI Paid : £11.05 Total Payment To Your Bank or Building Society Account This Week Via CHAPS : £581.80[/b] Make of that what you will, but please bear in mind that the make the most out of Nova is reliant on your submitting as many expenses as you can get your hands on (within reason ) so my take home would be higher still; all I’ve gained with that weeks wage is the extra hourly rates over normal PAYE.
Can’t remember exact hours off the top of my head as the Taskmaster wage slip is buried somewhere, but it was a Wednesday night shift, then Friday, Saturday and Sunday day shift. Total hours were 42 - including unpaid breaks - so 39 worked hours.
Rates were £10.50/hr for the night shift, £9.25 for Friday, £13.87 for Saturday and £18.50 for Sunday, all with time 1.5 except Sat & Sun which are straight through rates (don’t think I did any overtime on Wednesday or Friday actually).
Using Pml (portstaffmanagement.co.uk/) there is no one off set up fee, the weekly payment is cheaper also. That wage you are paid is less through Portstaff as well incurring you a National Insurace contribution of approx £0.19 per week. Also no PAYE at all, as your weekly wage is about £95. The remainder being taxable after your expenses, very similar to Nova but not quite the same and from what i’ve seen is cheaper and leaves you better off.
i asked my boss if he could do this for me but he told me it is illegal and you cannot be self employed unless you have your own truck and operators licence and he told me that the revenue will come after all the drivers on nova and get a lot of back tax off them. i do not no if this is true and am not looking for an argument its just what i was told.
these set ups were originally instigated in the building trade to get round new rules that came in a few years ago that meant if you worked for one company as a self employed subbie as virtually everyone did at one time, that company had to put you on the books, paye, after 12 weeks or to look at it another way you could only sub off one firm for a max of 12 weeks in one year. i’m not aware of any such regulations outside the construction industry so i’m not really sure in the point of such schemes for drivers, certainly if you registered as self employed and payed a tax bill and your own NIC after being paid directly from the agency you’d be a fair bit better off than the above figures, by my reckoning.
interesting idea though.
Hello all, I’ve been with Nova for about 2 years now and I find it to be worthwhile. I have my own business and I drive for the agency when we are slack. At present I go here there and everywhere with the agency sometime to get to a customer I have to travel 70 miles round trip. The good thing is I can claim back my mileage, at 40p per mile and my rate is £1.20 more than the other agency drivers. I do some tramping work, the agency gives me £20.00 per night (which comes to about £18.00 after tax) I can claim back any expenditure i.e. parking fees at truck stops etc (but you need a receipt) and I can also claim additional £5.00 a night through Nova.
I’m with Protemp in Derby and the other agency in Derby are not interested in having self-employed on there books.
Mike-C:
Using Pml (portstaffmanagement.co.uk/) there is no one off set up fee, the weekly payment is cheaper also. That wage you are paid is less through Portstaff as well incurring you a National Insurace contribution of approx £0.19 per week. Also no PAYE at all, as your weekly wage is about £95. The remainder being taxable after your expenses, very similar to Nova but not quite the same and from what i’ve seen is cheaper and leaves you better off.
This is Portstaff who charge you for processing expenses, right? Typically 5% iirc. They also charge extra for P&E Liability I think (0.25%?) and well as a charge for processing each time sheet. I think when you weigh it all up you’ll actually be slightly worse off than you would be through Nova, but it’s a personal choice at the end of the day.
From what I can see - and my own experiences so far - Nova have a good repute and I’m happy to stay with them. Both Alice and Marcus as well as their other staff (including Paddy - the CEO) have been excellent in helping me understand how it all works and answering any questions or concerns I’ve had.
Rob K:
This is Portstaff who charge you for processing expenses, right? Typically 5% iirc. They also charge extra for P&E Liability I think (0.25%?) and well as a charge for processing each time sheet. I think when you weigh it all up you’ll actually be slightly worse off than you would be through Nova, but it’s a personal choice at the end of the day.
From what I can see - and my own experiences so far - Nova have a good repute and I’m happy to stay with them. Both Alice and Marcus as well as their other staff (including Paddy - the CEO) have been excellent in helping me understand how it all works and answering any questions or concerns I’ve had.
You are right it’s Portstaff. They do charge you for processing your expenses but they all do it’s called a management charge the same as Nova, Maddison and the other companies that do it. The Portstaff charge is £17.63 per week (worked) no work and you don’t pay, again i think they’re all similar. Their is no P&E Liability as far as i know but the accident insurance is £3 per week worked. Nova charge a one off set up fee of £30 i think, PML there is no charge and i’m not sure about Maddison. You are right though it is a personal choice, one which is easier to make if we had all the prices and charges to compare them and make a fully informed descision.
Rob K:
This is Portstaff who charge you for processing expenses, right? Typically 5% iirc. They also charge extra for P&E Liability I think (0.25%?) and well as a charge for processing each time sheet. I think when you weigh it all up you’ll actually be slightly worse off than you would be through Nova, but it’s a personal choice at the end of the day.
From what I can see - and my own experiences so far - Nova have a good repute and I’m happy to stay with them. Both Alice and Marcus as well as their other staff (including Paddy - the CEO) have been excellent in helping me understand how it all works and answering any questions or concerns I’ve had.
You are right it’s Portstaff. They do charge you for processing your expenses but they all do it’s called a management charge the same as Nova, Maddison and the other companies that do it. The Portstaff charge is £17.63 per week (worked) no work and you don’t pay, again i think they’re all similar. Their is no P&E Liability as far as i know but the accident insurance is £3 per week worked. Nova charge a one off set up fee of £30 i think, PML there is no charge and i’m not sure about Maddison. You are right though it is a personal choice, one which is easier to make if we had all the prices and charges to compare them and make a fully informed descision.
True. I think a lot of people tend to make their decisions based on recommendations by others though too. I’m not suggesting that Portstaff is any worse (or better) than Nova, but this is only the second time I’ve heard mention of the company whereas I think most have heard of Nova.
Hi Rob,
Just another “Nova” enquiry…I may be interested in becoming self-employed myself quite soon so this thread could be of great help. I’m having trouble working out how your gross earnings make £777 when your hours worked multiplied by relevant hourly pay seem to make only £540odd. Where is the rest coming from OR most likely, what am I missing? Thanks, Geoff
I’m very interested in NOVA one of my mates started in the new year but I have not seen him to ask him the questions I want so, what about holidays and holiday pay and sick pay if any.
Rob K:
I’ve had a number of PM’s from interested parties regarding potential earnings through Nova.
This is the breakdown of my first “weekly income summary”, exactly as it’s laid out on the sheet :
Administered Employer Company : XXXXXXXXXXXXXX LTD Company Registration Number : XXXXXXXX Nova Trading Company : LGV Class Drivers Number of Shares Held : 1 Ordinary
Date : 30/09/2005
Gross Company Receipts This Week (ie. On top) : £777.14[/b] Company Income, Expenses and Other Details : Gross receipts less Gross Salary/Fees : £583.14 Plus Credit Adjustments : £0.00 Bonus : £0.00 Less Debit Adjustments : £30.00 (one off set up fee) Nova Fee : £25.00 (weekly fee is gross is over £400) Accident Insurance : £1.95 Employer’s NIC : £12.86 Corporation Tax : £97.53 ---- £415.80 Payment Details[/b]. Net Salary/Fees : £166.00 Add Surplus/Deficit Before Adjustments as above : £415.80 — Surplus/Deficit This Week : £581.80 Expenses[/b] (I didn’t submit any for the first week, so these were c/f. No idea what these two amounts are below) Allocated this Week : £1.95 Tax offset by Expenses : £0.37 Expenses Carried Forward : £0.00 PAYSLIP[/b] Employee/Director : (me) NI Number : XXXXXXXXX Tax Code : 489L-W1 Week Number : 26 Date : 30/09/2005 Gross Salary/Fees : £194.00 Less PAYE Tax : £16.95 Employee’s NIC : £11.05 Add Tax Credits : £0.00 Attachments : £0.00 Net Salary : £166.00 YTD Gross Pay : £194.00 YTD Tax Paid : £16.95 YTD NI Paid : £11.05 Total Payment To Your Bank or Building Society Account This Week Via CHAPS : £581.80[/b] Make of that what you will, but please bear in mind that the make the most out of Nova is reliant on your submitting as many expenses as you can get your hands on (within reason ) so my take home would be higher still; all I’ve gained with that weeks wage is the extra hourly rates over normal PAYE. [/quote] as i understand it, your a share holder in the company from which you draw a wage and pay contributions on, you then pay corperation tax on monies put into the company less expenses claimed, so does this mean that you’ll be liable to a share of the TAX/NIC bill on yearly profits made by the company? not trying to pick holes in the setup, just interested in how it works?
He’d never make enough profit to need to pay Corporation Tax - the lower threshold is several times what any one driver could earn in a year, even on Rob’s rates.
(within reason 
I’ve seen a few of them. 
