Well - after 21 years in a staff position, I am going it alone as a freelance techncial author. I've already got my first contract which I will start in 2 weeks. At the moment though, I have no accountant or company or clue TBH!
What is the best option for maximising my take home pay / clawing back expenses etc. and which is cheapest to run?
Any advance from contracting veterans very much appreciated.
TiA
congratulations! I too was staff for about the same timespan - 20 odd years - until being made redundant - would never go back now.
I guess it depends on your level of income and complexity of keeping accounts, being paid and so on. Also liability if anything goes wrong.
I hemmed and hawed and eventually came to the conclusion that I'm happy paying share of income tax - so have settled on the self employed / sole trader route - for simplicity - so no umbrella company, no company structure, simply pay NIC and submit tax return as usual at the end of the year. That may not be suitable for you though.
1. Sort out a good accountant to advise you
2. See 1
3. Some useful stuff here
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.s=tl&topicId=1073858805
and
http://www.contractoradvisor.co.uk/
If I were in your position I'd be considering setting up a Ltd co and going flat rate vat registered,
SPEAK TO AN ACCOUNTANT
+1 for what geoffj said.
I'll just add that many large accountancy companies have a referral reward scheme for new business. So if you already know someone use that uses the company you might be able to go halves on the reward they get for introducing you. Or someone on here might want a bit of £££!
One man band Ltd company is quite straightforward. If I can do it anyone can! A half decent accountant (mine gets £104 per month and will do my Companies House returns too) will be able to help out and make sure you don't get it wrong. I did voluntary VAT registration too and that's saved me about £850 in the first 3 quarters.
My accountant reckons that if you're going to earn more than about £25K (I think that's take home, so equivalent to £33K wage) then it's better for you personally to become a Ltd company rather than sole trader.
Yep, one man Ltd company is a piece of piss with a decent accountant. I would recommend SJD, look 'em up online.
Might be worth hearing what osbourne says tomorrow before doing anything too rash
Is a good point, after all, we fat cat business men need bringing under control... 🙄
If you go VAT fixed rate check the work types' vs rates, possible to get an extra 0.5-1.0%.
These guys are very good, used them for over 10 years now:
http://www.sjdaccountancy.com/
Do not go umbrella, if the umbrella goes bust you are unlikely to receive your money if you are one of the smaller creditors. Recently had a supplier in a similar position and there was nothing we could do for him as we had to pay out to the umbrella company liquidators as we were invoiced before he stopped using their services.