April IR35 Changes. Now is the time for public sector contractors to act
Editor | 27 February 2017
/ / / / / /

Changes are coming to Public Sector contracting in April 2017.

The key area which could affect your company in April will be the following;

Change
From 1st April this year many Limited Company Contractors working on a contract for a Public Sector institution will be classed as “Inside IR35” which means that the income from that contract will be taxed as if it was employment income. This can drastically increase the tax burden on the company.

Editor | 21 February 2017

Umbrella would like to congratulate this month’s Employee of the month - Emma Freeman.

Emma has been with Umbrella for 18 months now having joined us as an Assistant Accountant .  Many of our accountancy customers will have dealt with Emma numerous times and will not be surprised to see that her consistent hard work and helpful nature has been recognised. Thank you for all of your hard work Emma.

What does self-employed plumber ruling mean?

The Court of Appeal has ruled that a plumber, described by his employer as ‘self-employed’ should receive some of the same basic employment rights as a ‘worker’ for the company.

Brought against Pimlico Plumbers, London’s largest independent plumbing company, it is thought that the case will have implications for other companies that employ lots of self-employed workers.

A similar court battle was won by two Uber drivers last year in a landmark ruling for so-called ‘gig economy’ workers.

But some experts have warned that it is too early to make sweeping generalisations about self-employed contractors in other industries.

HMRC have released a number of updated sections on their website detailing how the changes to IR35 and the public sector will work from April 2017.

Editor | 24 February 2017
/ / /

A team of thirty personal service company (PSC) contractors have agreed to abandon an already overrunning NHS IT project, after the Guy’s & St Thomas (GSTT) hospital trust said that the contractors would be declared ‘inside IR35’ from April.

Cloud based Todoist is a real life saver

With the pace of life currently the way it is it can be difficult to stay on top of everything at any one point in time. As a contractor you’ve also got bills to pay, forms to file, returns to authorise and money to chase.  We have found that the on-line cloud based to-do list todoist  is a real life saver when it comes to helping you out.

FCSA blasts public sector IR35 changes
Editor | 10 February 2017
/ / / /

A professional contractor employment services body has been scathing in its criticism of the changes to the off-payroll public sector changes, due to take effect in less than two months.

The Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA), which represents more than 110,000 contractors in the flexible workforce sector, said that the changes raise problems associated with accountancy, points of law and practicality. 

It is always scary pushing the submit button on your self-assessment. Even for veteran contractors, sending the final document can be unnerving because traditionally, HMRC doesn’t have much sympathy for mistakes.