Using an Umbrella Company: Umbrella Calculators and the IR35
There are a considerable amount of up sides to using an umbrella company to over see and act as a go between for your work when contracting yourself to an employer, including acting to bring down your tax exposure in a wholly legal and up-front fashion. If you’re self employed but contracted exclusively to a single business, you could choose to consider mediating your work through an umbrella company’s books. In order to understand fully whether this option is right for your circumstances, you may initially choose to be sure of two things: will you be financially better off if you work for an umbrella company, and can you work in such a fashion without getting on the wrong side of the tax man ?
An umbrella calculator is a web-based item of software, commonly found on the websites of umbrella companies for “hire”, designed to permit the user to input their own fiduciary figures and a number of other variables , such as their hourly rate, amount of hours they usually work and regular expenses like overnight accommodation and subsistence when travelling on business. Other variables you might put into an umbrella calculator will include business mileage and any other genuine business expenses. The purpose of an umbrella calculator is to use these variables to get an understanding of whether a person will be financially better off working for an umbrella company or under contract as a self employed person.
In addition to taking advantage of an umbrella calculator, you would be well advised to ensure you understand and are fully compliant with Inland Revenue budget press release number 35. Also known as IR35 is the name given to UK legislation issued to make sure that people set up to be hired by an umbrella company do not benefit unfairly from their status . IR35 was announced in 1999, before which time people employed by an umbrella company could without fear of punitive action take their income as dividends , which were officially not liable for National Insurance payments. IR35 also worked to prevent an umbrella company from being owned by the same family, such that each of them might benefit from distributing the company’s income across each owner’s lower taxation echelons and personal allowances, which minimised their tax bill to the point of avoidance.