"Umbrella Company" and contracting.Advice please.

[Cyclone]

So you are saying that if I got £15 per hour PAYE, I should expect 30 per hour as a contractor?

 

That's what I'd be looking for.

 

If the difference is really £2.50/hr as suggested by someone else then there's no point in doing it (in fact you'll be worse off when you take into account NI, pension, holidays and sick).

[Cyclone]

Different kettle of fish.

 

 

If you have a full time job with a company and are earning £15 an hour, they might have to pay £30 an hour to get a skilled contractor in for a couple of weeks.

 

If you are looking for contract work, and they offer you say 2 weeks work, they might give you the choice of working PAYE at £15 or £17 limited / umbrella. They certainly wont pay you double!

 

From what he said he is talking about being the skilled contractor, and the contracts are never as short as 2 weeks, more often they run for 9 months, or 18 months, that kind of duration.

[Cyclone]

 

 

 

The days of earning serious cash contracting are over, unless you have some very good skills.

 

https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=54494293&Keywords=java&JobType1=20&LTxt=Leeds%2c+West+Yorkshire&Radius=30&distance=0.0&precision=2

 

First hit for a developer in Leeds, £350 - £400 /day.

 

Engineers (if we're talking about chartered mechanical engineers) get the same if not a little more. My other half works with self employed engineers quite often and this is the sort of money they work for.

[Cyclone]

Isn't that what I said?

Or do you mean that his take home pay will be much higher?

 

The rate would be higher, in the region of double.

 

The take home pay would be higher due to the rate and the tax advantages, but mainly the rate.

[AWOL]

The rate would be higher, in the region of double.

 

The take home pay would be higher due to the rate and the tax advantages, but mainly the rate.

 

Would a contractor usually get an enhanced rate for hours worked above the normal working hours?

eg....Would they get time and a half after 38 hours?

Would they normally get a higher rate for working Saturday or Sunday?

[zonefive]

An agency will have two rates, PAYE and Ltd. The PAYE rate is the hourly rate that they would pay you if they pay you direct. On top of that rate they will pay you holiday pay and in addition they have to pay Employers National Insurance to the authorities. If you choose to get paid via your own Ltd company, or through an umbrella company, the agency will pay a Ltd rate. The Ltd rate includes your hourly rate plus horly holiday pay plus Employers National Insurance - agencies hand over the National Insurance because they no longer have to pay it to the tax man (as they have not employed you). If you go through an umbrella company the employers NI still has to be paid because you are an "employee" when working umbrella. So in addition to paying your own national insurance, the umbrella company also deducts the employers NI. You will take more money home if you go through an umbrella because you can claim mileage and expenses which are offset against your tax. Umbrella is not so could if you have no expenses.

 

I have worked both umbrella and ltd (depending on the contract I am on). When umbrella I use a company called Redfox Contracting. They are really good.

[neeeeeeeeeek]

https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=54494293&Keywords=java&JobType1=20&LTxt=Leeds%2c+West+Yorkshire&Radius=30&distance=0.0&precision=2

 

First hit for a developer in Leeds, £350 - £400 /day.

 

Engineers (if we're talking about chartered mechanical engineers) get the same if not a little more. My other half works with self employed engineers quite often and this is the sort of money they work for.

 

And a recruitment company would never try draw people in with the promise of big piles of cash that dont exist! As I said before, skills get cash, but if developers were in such short supply why arnt they all earning 400 quid a day.

[Cyclone]

And a recruitment company would never try draw people in with the promise of big piles of cash that dont exist! As I said before, skills get cash, but if developers were in such short supply why arnt they all earning 400 quid a day.

 

You can act cynical all you like, but that's an entirely normal advert for an entirely normal rate for the market.

I started a new contract very similar to this through CWjobs just this week. I was previously working on a contract very similar to that, which I found through CWJobs and that lasted for the previous 19 months.

 

In fact, for the past 4 years of being self employed, I've worked in roles that closely resemble that (sometimes for a little less, sometimes for a little more), but with 20% of either side of that figure. They are almost always advertised through job boards, they exist 90% of the time and it's normally fairly easy to spot the agencies that are just trying to collect CVs.

 

To answer your last question. They are. At least the self employed ones with reasonable skill sets are. £350/day is a better target for Sheffield/Leeds as a minimum, £450/day or even more for London, but then you have higher expenses.

[Cyclone]

Would a contractor usually get an enhanced rate for hours worked above the normal working hours?

eg....Would they get time and a half after 38 hours?

Would they normally get a higher rate for working Saturday or Sunday?

 

My contracts are normally done on a day rate. Agreed overtime is often paid at a pro rata of the day rate, I've only been paid time * 1.5 (or even *2) once, and that was with IBM who clearly had money coming out of their ears!

[andyofborg]

he is not paying ni the agency is classing him as self employed. i know its what hmrc class him as that counts, but he is not paye and therefore not an employee.

 

if the agency aren't deducting ni, then why are they taking tax?

 

and for that matter, if the agency isn't taking ni, is he paying it on his own accord?