Starting a new company

srdb20

Hi lads,

Not sure if this is the right place (Mods please feel free to move)!

Im looking to start up my own company, so i can act as a IT contractor.

I was wondering if any one here new the procedure and likely costs involved in doing so.


Cheers

cgarvey

You don't have to start your own company, and probably shouldn't until you're sure that's what you want to do.

You can register yourself as being self employed (with the Revenue Commissioner), and you pay tax twice a year, and file a tax return once a year.

If you do set up a company (min. 2 directors), you get limited liability (so if you're sued, for example, you only lose the company's assest, not your own). If you're self employed you can get professional insurance to cover against this. Self employed comes with less charges, and less accounting obligations. You may also have to register for VAT if you're anticipated income is over a threshold (www.revenue.ie has the details).

But the best advice of all, is spend the money and go see an accountant.

.cg

boo-boo

I was with an "umbrella company" for a while (too long)
& it was costing 50 squid a week, I set up a limited co.
(you'll need an accountant for this) & all in all it came to
450.00 (plus VAT but you can claim that back).

Also, as it turned out he was able to claim back tax for
me relating to my period with the umbrella co. It came to
a good few bob, so despite paying top dollar to these guys I wasn't
really getting any value from them. I'd certainly recommend getting an accountant
& setting up your own co. if its for more than a short stint.
I can PM you his details if you want.

good luck,

b

srdb20

Cheers lads

Is there much cost involved starting of, also is there a rake of forms?

I might just do that BOO-BOO, Can i still work full time in the job im in and have my own company, as ill be contracting maybe 3 days a week starting of!

Can i get those details of you BOO-BOO?


Cheers

JackieChan

A couple of points.

I doubt there will be any agencies that will take on a new contractor with out them having a limited company structure(either directly or via umbrella).

Secondly, I too am with an umbrella company and pay about 50 quid a week.
But this is tax deductible and they look after everything.
All I do is provide timesheets and they produce invoices,deal with PAYE,PRSI and pay the remainder to me.

boo-boo says that it cost 450+Vat to set the company up but how about ongoing costs. Okay you can do PAYE and PRSI returns yourself but to have non-audited accounts done up is gona be 1K+vat minimum.
Also you can join and leave an umbrella scheme as you wish(within reason) its not as easy to terminate a company.
I'm not trying to push you one way or another but definitely do some research before deciding how you want to do it.
Best of luck with it

srdb20

Can anybody provide me with the name of these umbrella companys?

If you join up with them, do you just send them all your invoices and bills and stuff, and then they look after it for you?

JackieChan

srdb,
It depends.
Currently I do up timesheets and fax to them once a month. I will also post them my expenses for that month, mobile phone bills,internet bills,monthly travel cards,postage,etc,etc....
Thats all I have to do!

The major players in Ireland are 360, CXC, Giant Accountancy Services, Prima and OSK.
I'm with CXC

srdb20

Sounds pretty good...

Any other details i need to know before investigating this further?

Did you find any snags when going through this setup?

JackieChan

srdb20,
It was very straightforward for me. I was asked to sign some forms(directorship forms) and a form for CXC themselves that was pretty much it.They can't be too bad as I'm with them over 2 years

yoshick

Hello,

As a former Contractor, turned Contractor Services Provider. here's my advice to anyone starting up as a contractor ...

1) It's easy to set up a limited company. There are a few hoops to jump through i.e. forms to fill in, but any accountant worth their salt will help you with these.

There are advantages to setting up a limited company, mainly related to limited liability and tax efficiencies. The only down side of having a limited company is that you have to make a return to the companies registration office once a year. In reality your accountant will do this for you, so actually there are no downsides in principal.

2) Income - Expenses = taxable income ... very little wiggle room here in terms of tax efficiencies, but on the upside there is no return to be submitted to the Companies Registrations Office.

3) As a limited company you are obliged to file the following returns:

PAYE/PRSI returns on a monthly basis to the tax man
VAT returns on a bi-monthly basis to the tax man
P35 return on a yearly basis to the tax man

* if you sign up on the revenue-online site (www.ros.ie) to do online returns, form submission is a very straight forward procedure.

Form 12 (director's tax return) on a yearly basis to the tax man. Your accountant will normally help you with this.

Submit your books once a year to the CRO

-- Your accountant will prepare these.

In short you are accountable to the Tax man and the CRO. Interaction with both of these is reasonable straight forward and hassle free. Again any good accountant will be able to help you with any issues you may have.

Here comes Sales pitch ...

Hook Head Software (www.hookhead.com) provides a Virtual Accountant service which helps you prepare and track sales invoice, track purchases invoices, expenses, salaries etc and provides you with relevant reports to help you fill in the required forms for the tax man. The Virtual Accountant also maintains a full set of books for simplifying interaction with your accountant. This is a new service and is not advertised on the public part of the hook head website as yet. We have been concentrating on getting the underlying accounting functionality of the service complete before rolling it out. If you might be interested in this service, please register on the site or mail info@hookhead.com. Prices start at €300 per year