An Umbrella Company, Self Employed Tax and You
April 1st, 2012
If you’re a contractor or pay self employed tax, you run the risk of paying considerably more self employed tax than you need to. By establishing an umbrella company you will be able simplify the processes through which you are remunerated for your expertise, and claim lots of everyday costs against tax .
For example, if you were a consultant retained by a pharmaceutical company on a self employed basis, you could choose to create an umbrella company which could then hire you on a full time basis, and be reimbursed for your labour by the company to which you are contracted. The umbrella company can then remunerate you as a permanent member of staff rather than as a self employed person . Through the umbrella company you could also, and simply , declare your business costs as expenses, which the umbrella company would be able to treat as operating costs, deducting them from the moneys received from the company to which you’re contracted before you are paid, and crucially, before you are taxed .
The costs that the umbrella company might be able to remove from your self employed tax in this way could cover mileage or other travelling costs, your computer and internet usage at home if you ever work from home . You could also have your umbrella company issue you with a business vehicle and business telephone , and to a limited extent these benefits could be discounted against your tax liability and will ultimately end up saving you money .
The advantages of establishing an umbrella company
This other person is then paid by the umbrella company, rather than paying self employed tax. The amount salaried to the third party is in reality a proportion of the salary paid to the contractor by the contracting company, but by sharing this money between two staff members of the umbrella company it is possible to benefit from the untaxed income or “personal allowance” which all British people of working age receive , with the first portion of their income (today it’s the first ?7,475, from April 2012 it will rise to ?8,105, with an additional increase included in in the Spring 2012 budget) going untaxed.