Dotted around the recent Queen’s Speech, eagle-eyed commentators picked out certain areas that could be of benefit to the UK’s contracting community. In particular the issue of taxation captured attention
Contractor Articles
marketing | 29 June 2015
/ / /marketing | 25 June 2015
/ / / /The UK’s improving financial performance has been helped, in a large way, by contractors. That is one of the conclusions offered in the RSA’s (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce) recent report on how small business benefits the UK’s economy.
Small businesses, the rise of the self-employed and the role of contractors were all factors in driving UK productivity and righting the titling ship in a post-2008 Britain.
Umbrella’s Louise Sayers had this to say on the report’s findings: “Well at Umbrella HQ we are often singing the praises of contractors, so this report chimes perfectly with that! Its just further affirmation of the positive role contractors play in our economy bouncing back and improving year on year.”
marketing | 22 June 2015
/ / / / /A recent survey from the Grampian Chamber of Commerce has shown concern amongst contracting companies at the parlous state of the oil and gas industry. Of particular concern was the news that over 60% of the operators approached by the survey had themselves cut projects due to tumbling oil prices.
Umbrella’s Jessica Evans offered these thoughts on the survey’s findings: “There is undoubtedly growing concern that oil prices have effectively shocked UK oil & gas. When you hear about the impacts on exploratory contracting – with something like 70% of respondents experiencing falls in project values – then you can get a view of how widespread the downturn has been.”
marketing | 11 June 2015
/ /HMRC have issued a warning to contractors or freelancers who took part in a tax avoidance scheme called– The Contractor Loan Scheme.
The scheme was designed to pay contractors a loan rather than a salary from a non UK employer with the aim that the loan payment would be tax free (in place of a taxable salary). HMRC are now warning that income tax may still be liable on these types of arrangements.
marketing | 23 April 2015
/ / / /Amongst all the good news and continued belief in the buoyancy of the UK’s economic performance, an elephant has been lurking somewhat awkwardly in the room: an acute lack of skills.
Rough estimates proffer that the Construction industry requires over 44,000 new entrants to the sector to keep pace with demand and to regenerate an ageing workforce. The UK also needs to be bringing thousands more engineers to the workplace than it is currently doing. To put it bluntly, there aren’t enough skilled personnel coming into the workplace across UK industry.
marketing | 26 June 2015
/ / / / /If you’ve taken a taxi recently, there’s a high chance it might have been an Uber car. One of the most impactful start-ups in recent years, a hidden fact behind Uber’s inexorable rise has been its total reliance on contractors. There are something like permanent 2,000 employees on the Uber payroll, compared to nearly 160,000 contractors.
So what can the Uber example tell us about contracting in the 21st century economy? Umbrella’s Operations Director Neil Armitage gave us his thoughts: “Uber is a really specific example of an ‘on-demand’ style of business. They can recruit contractors in waves as and when. Drivers, tech experts and back office staff. That suits their business model, so it is a somewhat nuanced example.”
marketing | 24 June 2015
/ / / /There have been some subtle suggestions that, perhaps, summer is arriving. So, with the upturn in temperatures (at least for some of us), what better time to check out what’s cooking in IT contracting?
For some expert insight, we caught up with Umbrella’s Barbara Munnelly for a look at the tech jobs recruiters are hot on this summer: “With the General Election out of the way, the UK is settling back down to work, and companies are looking to fill mandates across their IT requirements. The UK’s financial services industry continues to be the ‘go-to’ recruiter for many of our talented IT contractors and freelancers.”
marketing | 19 June 2015
/ / / / /The lastest entry into the 'Great Umbrella Bake Off' is this fabulous Umbrella logo cake from Ricky Patidar in Accountancy Services. Surely this could win Best Umbrella Company Logo Cake?
marketing | 1 May 2015
/ / / / / /Umbrella Accountants are pleased to announce they have now achieved the status of FreeAgent Premium Partner.
Having moved over from their existing software supplier in mid-2014 Umbrella Accountants have migrated over 1,000 clients onto the system and have a training program in place that means 100% of their accountancy staff are FreeAgent accredited.
Operations Director Neil Armitage said “I have passed the accreditation myself as FreeAgent is now at the core of our clients’ experience so we need to reflect that across the board. Using FreeAgent has meant that we can concentrate on providing first class accounting advice and tax planning while the clients have up to date information wherever they are. By signing up with FreeAgent we have 70 plus experts working on the accountancy software for our clients and updating constantly”
Kilian Fitzsimmons-Wilson from FreeAgent added “We’re delighted to welcome Umbrella Accountants as Premium Partners. Since they joined we have seen the numbers and usage rise considerably as the company grows and it’s pleasing to know FreeAgent has been a big part of that growth.”
marketing | 22 April 2015
/ / /Business Entity Tests (BET’s) have previously been used in the Public Sector to assess whether a contractor working in the Public Sector is outside the scope of IR35 and hence can be paid through their own limited company.
