Umbrella companies for consultants

[ben789]

Hia all,

does anyone have any experiences with umbrella companies? Are they good/bad/etc? Would anyone recommend one?

I'm thinking about using www.parasolit.co.uk are they any good?

Thanks all & have a good new year!

[simpo two]

I don't, but who finds the contracts, you or them?

[ben789]

I do. =]

[simpo two]

Then I guess you have you weigh the perceived advantages against the real cost. Can't really comment further as it's not my industry, but their staff are living on money you're earning for them...

[dimmadan]

I use www.fpsgroup.com/ have been for 18 months, I have no complaints, and have always been helpful with any queries. They take 5% which drops 0.5% for every recommendation.

[s3_mcd]

there are lots around, bear in mind cost really does compare with service; some companies will only deal with some umbrella's so bear that in mind also ....

the two that i would recommend are JSA (personal touch with lots of variants to sit) and Giant (all on line timesheets etc)

[JonRB]

Why do you want to join an umbrella company anyway? It isn't so great a hassle running your own company if you have a competant accountant.

[Zorro]

Highly recommend them.

I had my own limited company for 3 years and it was a fg nightmare, albeit some of it self-inflicted due to my hatred in dealing with paperwork. I went thru 2 accountants in this time, first was overcharging and the second was JSA with whom I seemed to be doing all the paperwork ie NI contributions, filling in VAT forms, 3 monthly totals of incoming/outgoings etc etc. I also got a mountain of mail to deal with from JSA and the IR/VAT dudes. With working abroad as well I didn't need this hassle.

After the IR35 malarkey I switched to a composite company and it was like night and day, great to get that fat monkey off my back, all I had to do was phone them up (small firm so I spoke with the same girl every time)and tell them how many hours I'd worked that week and what my expenses were and they sorted it all out. Bingo Money in my account by BACS 10 or so days later. They charged £ 75 a month for this and only when I was working.
Paperwork invlovement pour moi - zero...just a statement from them each week with a complete breakdown of the numbers.

[ben789]

JonRB said:

Why do you want to join an umbrella company anyway? It isn't so great a hassle running your own company if you have a competant accountant.

I don’t really want any paper work hassles, its cheap (only £40 a month) which includes insurance/etc. and I want to avoid any potential future IR35 problems :> (i.e. the IR turning around in a few years time and saying I owe them lots of ££££).

Also should the worst happen I want to be classed as an 'employee' (not a director/self-employed/etc.) so I can easily claim Job Seekers / Housing Benefit/etc. (but to be honest I don’t know how correct this assumption is as so far I haven’t needed to do this) .

>> Edited by ben789 on Friday 2nd January 14:43

[Zorro]

One thing you have to watch is that some agencies will only deal with you if you have a limited company and are a director of it, not just an employee. This was the case with my agency when I switched from limited to composite. Not a problem, my accountant just made me a director of the new composite company as well as an employee.

[JonRB]

ben789 said:

...and I want to avoid any potential future IR35 problems

Being an employee of a composite company doesn't seem to have a huge bearing on IR35, it would seem. If it did then I would imagine PCG and Shout99 would be advocating them loud & clear, but they appear not to be.

Also, following the Dignatio/CFP collapse there is understandable concern amongst freelancers about using umbrella companies.