The umbrella company act as my employer and charge
me £15 Plus £2.20 for accident insurance which I don’t
have to have on a paye basis then all I have to do is email
my expenses form to offset some of the income through
claiming expenses such as travel ect. Would I be better off
setting up my own LTD Company cost wise and effort wise 
I make a good living doing 5 and 6 days work and seen the
benefits by using a umbrella company since end of may but
now I’m being offered rates of £11 to £14 an hour on self
employed also getting offers of freelance driving.
If I go the LTD Company way I want to do the accounts myself
and do it right from the start.
I forgot to mention that the company I use is fairgate.
I had to go the umbrella way to get paid and have work
at the time. I just checked my fairgate hand book and it
says - Not everyone earns enough to justify having their
own single person company so going the umbrella way is
right for you.
When I went the umbrella way I did not no how many days I
would get so thought this would be for me to I find a permanent job.
But at the moment I’m getting as much work as I like and seen the
agency was desperate so got all drivers £1 an hour more. Since going
the umberalla way I have never earned less than the mid £400 mark
and never top the £530 ish pound mark working nights and both weekends
for the top money and done the hours to. Fairgate have not said anything
like you need to go self employed as your earning to much.
It says fairgate construction services umbrella you are an
employee and get paid national minimum wage, holiday pay,
tax free expenses where appropriate and a top up salary
So far I have found them to be good
I make a good living doing 5 and 6 days work and seen the
benefits by using a umbrella company since end of may but
now I’m being offered rates of £11 to £14 an hour on self
employed also getting offers of freelance driving.
Since going
the umberalla way I have never earned less than the mid £400 mark
and never top the £530 ish pound mark working nights and both weekends
for the top money and done the hours to.
I guess you only work a 37 hour week.
Now if your self employed, I work on stuffing 20% away from each invoice for tax as a good safety barrier, leaving me a little lump for a treat at the start of a new tax year.
So on your figures, you only actually have between £380 and £424 a week in your sky rocket.
To be a bit cheeky fella, I would say you would be financially better off going PAYE with someone. As clearly either your rates are that low even the Polish would reject them, or in comparison to the hours and rate I charge, you only work a 2.5 day week which in fairness is a blinder.
That’s the money I bank after tax ect sorry my fault.
Paye was not an option and good jobs are hard to find
at the moment so its agency work.
I just got 4 recent wage slips and these figures are net not gross
working 5 days sometimes 6 days.
£454.31
£465.24
£483.58
£512.27
I have one somewhere for £534 net pay which is what I banked.
I’m just asking for advice on would I be better of going LTD Company
as good full time jobs seem to be none exsistent.
I cant give advice really on Umbrella or LTD companies. As I don’t do Umbrella, nor am i LTD.
I’m a sole trader, self employed. I neither do work for agencies, I work direct for companies.
My last 4 weeks invoices I’ve put through are:
£860.34
£778.40
£714.26
£667.50
Clearly before tax, top line. But its one of them olde chestnuts where folk say they earn more, charge more, wouldn’t get out of bed for that blah blah blah.
What I charge works both for my customer, and works for me, and I have had permanent work for over 3 years.
What I’m kinda trying to get at, is if your happy with your wedge, and enjoying the job, just let sleeping dogs lay really. The only advantage in my opinion to going LTD is if you want to run a couple of years without paying tax and then closing the company through bankruptcy, if your up front and work legit, then sole trader works just fine.
I now an agency pay there self employed drivers £11 an hour
my agency I’m with subby 2nd tier charge them £14.00 and
gave me £9.50 an hour mon to fri. Sat, sun and bank hols
charge £16.50 per hour (exclusive of vat) I got this off a person
who got sacked from the agency office staff nothing like a woman
scorned.
I am not trying to compete with anyone just get the most money I
can and trying to find the best option for me.
If I go self employed I want to start off properly keep the stress levels
low and I may have EU funding for business start up. My thoughts are
maybe go LTD Company get rates of £11 to £14 to start with then keep
learning of smarter people on here how to do my own accounts ect and
negotiate rates.
Next year due a little freelance maybe and if I set up a LTD Company
would it not be to difficult to go owner driver in the future if the rates
ect where to my likening. I’m just doing my research at the moment
I dont think you would get eu funding but maybe i am wrong
When I was not working this woman said have you thought
about going self employed as we have lots of cash to chuck
around from the EU this was end of last year maybe beginning
of this year but at that time self employed did not interest me.
I have to go in there office this thursday so going to bring it up.
You maybe right also its a funny thing as they might not now how
to class my work but worth a shot nothing to loose if I get a no.
If you’re working at the same place more than 40% of the working year, then you can’t claim mileage. This is a large part of tax offsets, so I’d be rather wary of getting a nasty tax bill if you end up working at the same place all the time.
I would argue you need to be LTD with at least 3 clients spread across each year to keep claiming the mileage and remain legit.
Takehome pay is a bit of a misnomer, as when self employed, its usually the same as the gross unadjusted rate. The tax bill comes later.
I looked into this a few years ago and came up with the conclusion that LTD was the way to go especially as an old friend is an accountant. If you think you can do it all yourself do it but there’s a lot to learn.
As I reckon I’m claiming every tax offset I CAN claim at present, the only advantage of being LTD myself would be if I could invoice a much higher rate than I currently get paid as PAYE. I’ve already posted on the magic number here for me being £18ph.
As PAYE, with the agency very nicely taking care of all the tax offsetting for me (like umbrella, but without the fees) I can get away with working for £10-£12ph PAYE basis, because it leads to the optimum level of takehome pay for the part time hours I wish to average over the year. WIth proper paperwork, it actually becomes possible to take home MORE than your “gross pay” on the actual payslip, and I love this aspect of the “optimum earnings” concept. 
If you work for 10 hours a day for example, and commute say, 1 hour a day total, then wouldn’t it be nice if you could take home the equivalent of 11 hours gross pay for actually working a 10 hour shift? I’ve posted before on the concept of a “driver’s working day” being the “time they walk out of their front door, to the time they walk back in it again”. 
What’s this accident insurance I think you’ll find it doesn’t actually exist I’ve looked in to this last year and even specialist transport brokers haven’t heard of it you can insure a driver against accidental damage unless you insure the vehicle which for 2.20 a day you cant also you can’t insure yourself to drive a truck without an o licence
alix776:
What’s this accident insurance I think you’ll find it doesn’t actually exist I’ve looked in to this last year and even specialist transport brokers haven’t heard of it you can insure a driver against accidental damage unless you insure the vehicle which for 2.20 a day you cant also you can’t insure yourself to drive a truck without an o licence
Sounds like it could possibly be personal accident insurance? Ie like a wage insurance or something if you get injured?
I’m hoping so anyway, because any driver that thinks they need to insure the vehicle themselves and pays out for the privilege of going to work needs their head seeing to - which they should be able to get done by claiming on the above insurance 
I run as a Ltd Co and have done for several years, it suits me & I’ve earnt a good wage doing it but don’t think it’s easy and that you can do it all yourself…
If you VAT register then you have the quarterly returns to calculate and submit.
You can do your books yourself but must be checked & submitted by a qualified accountant.
You’ll need to pay yourself a wage, (you become a PAYE Director of your Ltd Co)and provide payslips & P60; again this needs signing off annually by an accountant as part of your annual returns.
Annual Dividends need to be signed of by the Accountant also.
Dont forget you also need a seperate Business Bank Account.
But your accountant fee etc should be less than the tax you would have paid under normal PAYE so you should be better off for it.
you’re in a good position at the moment. you are working for this company on a self employed basis.
not in the eyes of the law you’re not.
all this lovely 20% that you put to one side is actually yours.
this so called umbrella company is actually responsible for your tax and NI. so keep it as you are, and don’t give the tax man [zb] all, it isn’t your responsibility.
i’ve known HMRC to go for the easy target (you). but as soon as you say “i work for them, take it up with them” they leave you alone. legally you can’t be held responsible.
It is personal accident insurance if I get injured ect and can
opt-out if I like. For now im going to keep going the umbrella
way as its seems my best option at this time.