Contracting - Ltd company - which accountancy/consultancy to work through?

MÓC

As a contractor I have to set up a Ltd company.

I have been directed to work through http://www.cxcglobal.ie/ who bring you in as 1 of 6 directors
in a Ltd company and they pay your salary.

Problem is they take 5% of your earnings....up to 3000euro

What other options do I have. Should i set up my own company and

1. do my own accountancy,
2. get an ccountant to do it

or can anyone recomend a different agency/accountancy/consultancy to work through

DublinWriter

M&#211 wrote: »

As a contractor I have to set up a Ltd company.

I have been directed to work through http://www.cxcglobal.ie/ who bring you in as 1 of 6 directors
in a Ltd company and they pay your salary.

Problem is they take 5% of your earnings....up to 3000euro

What other options do I have. Should i set up my own company and

1. do my own accountancy,
2. get an ccountant to do it

or can anyone recomend a different agency/accountancy/consultancy to work through

Horses for courses. You'll need one other to act as Director if you set up your own Ltd. company. That will put them under the radar of the Revenue Commissioners and potentially disbar them from claiming social welfare in the future.

If cxcglobal are doing your VAT, PRSI and Annual returns for you, then I'd say it's not a bad deal. I've been working under my own Ltd. company for the past 10 years and the returns are a nightmare.

You'll also have to consider how they will handle your expenses and milage.

mick.fr

CXC takes up to 300 euro a month (max) to manage you.
This is not that bad especially when you know setting up your own thing will cost you more in money and time.
Even if you have your own limited, the accountant will take 250 euro/month easy.
They do everything for you. VAT, pay your salary etc..
You are a director with them but you are also an employee.
You can expense a lot of things as a director don't forget that.

Been using them for 9 months now, and they are ok, sometimes you have to yell a bit, but still that's a good and cheap service they provide.

Plus the 300 euro a month are expensable...

antoinolachtnai

How would being a company director disbar one from claiming social welfare in the future?

mick.fr

antoinolachtnai wrote:

How would being a company director disbar one from claiming social welfare in the future?

A company's director cannot claim for unemployment benefit/assistance in case he loses his job.
Well as far as I know, I may be wrong...But this is usually the case, freelances and directors are not entiltled to such benefits, dispate they actually pay the welfare fares each month :-)

antoinolachtnai

You are talking about being a proprietary company director where your main employment is with the company you own, in which case you pay 'S' stamps. You cannot claim UB with 'S' contributions (or 'stamps' as we called them in the good old days).

If you are a non-proprietary director (i.e., you own less than a certain amount of the company, 15 percent I think) or you mainly work for a company other than the company you own, you are going to have 'A' contributions, the same as everyone else. If you have the right number of 'A' contributions you will be entitled to UB.

You don't need to have any stamps to qualify for UA, as I understand it.

Anyway, upshot is that the loss of UB benefits should not be an issue if you are a non-executive director of a friend/relation's company.

As for the scheme described by the OP, it seems sort of pricey for what it is. It also puts you in the position of being a director and sticking your yours earnings into a company controlled by a group of directors that you don't know anything about. Worst case, if you missed two board meetings, they could change the compensation rules and not bother paying you. In practice it would probably be ok, but I would not do it myself.

[update: i have read the cxc website and it gives different details. You aren't a director, and the cap is EUR 300 not 3000. This is a much better situation.]

mik_da_man

I am in the same boat as the OP and I have decided to set up my own company and do most of the Accounting work myself.
CXC would be charging 300 a month so that's €3600 a year

To set up your own Co costs around €350 and I think the figure of €250 a month for an accountant is a bit steep.
I may be wrong..

CXC do offer a good service though and take all the hassle out of doing returns ect.

It's down to personal preference and I would rather have my own Co.
And I'm pretty confident that I can save money doing it

Mik

antoinolachtnai

Ah 300 euros a month, that's a lot.

250 euros a month for an accountant? A bit steep if you do your own invoicing, bookkeeping and VAT (basically a cash book in Excel). The accounting is really very simple, only 50 or 60 transactions per year. I'd be thinking it would cost you 1000 or maybe 2000 per year at the outside. Still, depends on your accountant and the level of service you need.

The CXC thing doesn't include your own personal tax situation at all.

antoinolachtnai

[order of thread got mixed up.]

DublinWriter

antoinolachtnai wrote:

250 euros a month for an accountant? A bit steep if you do your own invoicing, bookkeeping and VAT (basically a cash book in Excel).

If you're working under your own limited company then you would need to engage a Certified\Chartered Accountant to sign the yearly accounts that you have to sumbit to the CRO. That can cost €1,500 and up.

antoinolachtnai

No you don't. You could file your own accounts if you wanted. There's an audit exemption for such a small company. I would recommend getting an accountant to do this though but it wouldn't necessarily cost that much.

MÓC

I'm still not decided what to do,

There is another crowd called www.360-group.com who will set up a
Ltd company which is yours to keep after you finish up with them.
They charge 170 per month and reckon i will pay max 18% in tax once i write stuff off.

still stewing on this ..........

antoinolachtnai

I would do this with an irish accounting firm if i were you, but maybe they are good.

mik_da_man

M&#211 wrote: »

I'm still not decided what to do,

There is another crowd called www.360-group.com who will set up a
Ltd company which is yours to keep after you finish up with them.
They charge 170 per month and reckon i will pay max 18% in tax once i write stuff off.

still stewing on this ..........

If it's €170 PM Month Vs €300 for the same service then it's a no brainer.
I see that they have a Dublin office too, so that's good.
I Might just give them a call - cheers

On a side note, I was chattin to a few experienced Contractors and they recommend not going below paying 20% tax or the revenue alarm bells will ring and you may get an audit.
Just some friendly advice

Mik

antoinolachtnai

Remember that one of the tax benefits of a limited company is to do with pensions. With these schemes, you don't seem to get to take full advantage of that.