Contracting through Umbrella Company

retalivity

IM pretty sure you can, although whatever accountancy firm you are with should be able to give more details on it.

My question is can I claim the fees for a course as an expense? I am starting a course soon learning another language (spoken language, not programming) and while it doesn't relate at all to my current position, it may well assist me in my career further down the line with my next contract/ft position. Anyone have experience of this? I too am in an umbrella company.

Carpet diem

retalivity wrote: »

IM pretty sure you can, although whatever accountancy firm you are with should be able to give more details on it.

My question is can I claim the fees for a course as an expense? I am starting a course soon learning another language (spoken language, not programming) and while it doesn't relate at all to my current position, it may well assist me in my career further down the line with my next contract/ft position. Anyone have experience of this? I too am in an umbrella company.

if it relates to your work yes you can.

sartay

retalivity wrote: »

IM pretty sure you can, although whatever accountancy firm you are with should be able to give more details on it.

My question is can I claim the fees for a course as an expense? I am starting a course soon learning another language (spoken language, not programming) and while it doesn't relate at all to my current position, it may well assist me in my career further down the line with my next contract/ft position. Anyone have experience of this? I too am in an umbrella company.

If you are in an umbrella company you can only claim for courses if they relate to your current contract. If you want to claim for courses that may possibly help you in the future in getting another contract etc, you need to set up your own company as it is seen by revenue as a type of business development cost. A friend of mine had issues with revenue over an expense like this. Basically imagine that you are in a normal permanent job and you want to learn French, but you and your employer know that you will never have a need for speaking French in your current job. Your employer can't pay for that tax free as it has nothing to do with your job with them. You might be thinking that you could learn French to help get a new job elsewhere but that is not going to benefit your current employer, so it's not therefore a cost which your current employer can pay for/claim as a business expense for his company. That's how it was explained to my mate and it made sense when it said like that. Basically when you are in an umbrella company you have to think about what would be allowed if you were in a normal permanent job. Revenue are clamping down on all this and trying to get contractors in line with PAYE employees through all those audits that have been going on.

Blanco100

Recently landed a financial services position and have a 6 month contract. The agency in question have asked that I set up an umbrella company in order to be paid.

Its only when I started that I realised that I am liable to cover both employee and employer PRSI which amounts to 15% of my wage (which is not all that high anyway). Other starters through other agencies are simply paid by their agency for the duration of the contract.

Basically on a salary of 35k i'm paying an extra 340 per month between management fees and employer PRSI. Its absolutely mental. But i'm stuck now because this is the arrangement the agency has with my place of work.

Is there anyway around this at all I wonder without losing my status as a PAYE worker (pays towards stamps etc...) I don't want to lose any benefits by going the director route

I guess i'm just at the mercy of my agency on this one

hidinginthebush

If you don't want to lose your status as a PRSI worker you can work for an umbrella company as an employee. I set up as a contractor through contractingplus recently and this was certainly an option.

Blanco100

hidinginthebush wrote: »

If you don't want to lose your status as a PRSI worker you can work for an umbrella company as an employee. I set up as a contractor through contractingplus recently and this was certainly an option.

Thats what I am doing but I have to cover the employer PRSI contribution 10.75% (even though nobody is working for me), and the Employee PAYE contributions 4%

Its the guts of 300 per month extra to do it this way, rather than be paid directly by the agency. Its just something they don't do

CIARAN_BOYLE

The thing is contractors negotiate on a total cost basis rather than this is my wage. Usually they are paid one and a quarter to one and a half times the average wage in their industry. You don't look to have gotten that with your salary so you failed the negotiation stage in getting your job.

Gray.S

Hi,

I am doing contract work through an agency and they have offered 3 methods of payment: PAYE, limited company, or umbrella company. I only plan on doing this work for 4 month, then returning to full time employment in the public sector. I've ruled out setting up my own ltd company but wondering what the benefit is of an umbrella company (Director) vs PAYE?

I understand I can claim expenses through umbrella company, but surely I would have to claim a significant amount to offset the fee associated with the accountancy firm? eg. for a monthly fee of €200 I would have to claim expenses of ~€500 to get any benefit (at 40% income tax rate)?

If i choose the PAYE option, is it just like a regular job or are there extra forms and tax returns I'll be liable to file?

Any help much appreciated!