Irish company trading in the UK

dubstub

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction to get some definitive answers on this:
I set up a company last November so that I could work as an Independent contractor as software development consultant. I am now looking to take up a contract in the UK. I am wondering what I will need to do on the UK side of things to get this to work?
I am registered for VAT in Ireland and as a PAYE employee of the company. The company bought a commercial vehicle and has an outstanding bank loan so for the moment I need to keep trading under the Irish company. Can I simply start trading in the UK and invoice the new company I am contracting for through my Irish company? Will I need to register for VAT and PAYE in the UK or can I simply pay all this through my Irish registered company?
The contract would be for 6 months with a possibility of an extension. I'd really appreciate any help on this...

blorg

dubstub wrote:

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction to get some definitive answers on this:
I set up a company last November so that I could work as an Independent contractor as software development consultant. I am now looking to take up a contract in the UK. I am wondering what I will need to do on the UK side of things to get this to work?
I am registered for VAT in Ireland and as a PAYE employee of the company. The company bought a commercial vehicle and has an outstanding bank loan so for the moment I need to keep trading under the Irish company. Can I simply start trading in the UK and invoice the new company I am contracting for through my Irish company? Will I need to register for VAT and PAYE in the UK or can I simply pay all this through my Irish registered company?
The contract would be for 6 months with a possibility of an extension. I'd really appreciate any help on this...

PAYE is not an issue as you are an Irish worker paid by an Irish company and so pay Irish taxes.

More than likely you would not register for VAT in the UK; the exception is if the value of the contract is very large; I am not sure of the exact amount but think it is at least €100,000 (you will want to find out the right amount to be sure.) So for example Amazon.co.uk is registered for VAT in Ireland and charge the Irish 21% as they do a lot of business here but most other EU companies selling to Ireland charge their domestic VAT rate.

You would invoice the UK company from your Irish company but if they supply their UK VAT number you would zero-rate the VAT (e.g. not charge them VAT.)

The only issue with all of this which might make me unsure is if you are going to be physically doing the work in the UK; that might well have an impact which changes the above (I suspect if you are paying yourself in the UK you should have to pay UK income tax.)

Do you have an accountant? They can generally work these things out to your best advantage.

dubstub

Thanks for your reply. Yep, I would be located in the UK, sorry, I should have made that clear on my first post.
That is what had me wondering in the first place. I would imagine that being based in the UK would mean I have to pay income tax over there but I know there is some agreement between the UK and Ireland regarding this; I was hoping someone here may know the details.
I have an accountant, but at the moment I am simply researching the possibility so haven't mentioned this to him yet. Always prefer to do a bit of research before approaching my accountant as he likes to play things very safe and is usually a bit more forthcoming when you can appear a little savvy on a situation!

fatboypee

I was looking to do the exact same. Contract rates in the UK are way above here. The only thing that stopped me dead was the IR35 ruling. There are good articles on http://www.contractor.co.uk but beware of asking questions, I got flamed very very badly for a very innoccuous question....

FBP.

dubstub

fatboypee wrote:

I was looking to do the exact same. Contract rates in the UK are way above here. The only thing that stopped me dead was the IR35 ruling. There are good articles on http://www.contractor.co.uk but beware of asking questions, I got flamed very very badly for a very innoccuous question....

FBP.

That link doesn't seem to work... I'll look into IR35 though, cheers.

MrPudding

dubstub wrote:

That link doesn't seem to work... I'll look into IR35 though, cheers.

A couple of things.

First of all, you need to check with the company you will be contracting with if they will allow you to trade under an irish company. I could not use my Irish company and had to incorporate a UK one. The good news on that front is most accountants will do it for free and it only takes a few hours.

IR35 is a bitch, you really need to get it sorted or it could cost you a lot of money. check out www.pcg.org.uk and get your contract checked out by an IR 35 expert. I used bower & cottrel, very good service. They check it out for your and then negotiate changes to the wording if required.

MrP

fatboypee

dubstub wrote:

That link doesn't seem to work... I'll look into IR35 though, cheers.

Sorry http://www.contractoruk.com