Contracting Consulting Freelancing Made Easy

The Telegraph reported today that HMRC will temporarily shut down its website for four days, just as the new tax year starts. We were able to confirm that this is not the case and there will be no noticeable change in service over this period. The misinformation was reported on the telegraph website and picked [...]

Check out our follow up article for a more in depth analysis of the small business tax review. We uncover more of its recommendations and start to assess what it means.

HMRC will start a programme of Business Records Checks that will look at the adequacy and accuracy of business records in SMEs. The checks, which are due to start later this year, are designed to bring about a major improvement in the standard of record-keeping. To quote the HMRC “40% of SMEs – 2 million [...]

Those contractors who hoped that the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) report would recommend the end of IR35 may have to wait a little longer. OTS Director John Whiting has just announced that his organisation will provide a report on its review of UK taxation aead of the March 23rd Budget. However, he warned that [...]

The government has placed new rules on intra company transfers, which limits the amount of time these employees are allowed to work in the UK. The new rules, coming into effect on April 1st 2011, will see employees, wanting to transfer to the UK from a non-EU country, forced to go back after a year, [...]

RenewableUK and EU Skills have jointly commissioned Research that shows there was a 91 per cent rise in the number of people employed full-time in energy jobs in 2009/10 compared to the 2007/2008 period. This indicates that an increased demand for renewable and waste energy management has directly related to more jobs and contracts, which [...]

The government is set to embark on radical reforms of the NHS through its new Health and Social Care Bill, but the health service already faces exceptionally challenging times due to the government’s public sector spending austerities. According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), however, umbrella company and ltd company contractors could well end [...]

More professionals should be entitled to go on contractor payroll and enjoy the benefits of flexible working rather be compelled to stick to patterns of permanent employment, an expert has suggested. In remarks which will appeal to many contractors working for umbrella companies, Dr Ken Beaumont, who is Principal Consultant and Manager at Workforce Logistics, [...]

As an umbrella company contractor, you’ve already proven that you have the mettle to execute bold transitions: you’ve walked away from the comfort zone of permanent salaried employment to venture in to the more exciting but less predictable world of freelance contracting. Can you make another similar transition? A good number of umbrella company contractors [...]

The average contractor working through an Umbrella Company may well face periods of worklessness every so often which can last anything from a few weeks to a few months, especially in the current economic climate.  But mortgages, council taxes, grocery costs and much other expenditure have a relentlessly clockwork regularity to them, blithely indifferent to [...]