Umbrella Company VS Agency PAYE

komrade_kristoph

Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on working as a contractor? I have been contracting now since Feb 2011, it was my first time and I was advised by the Agency to go with an Umbrella company...it was suggested I go with Brookson.

No knowing how it all worked I signed up with Brookson, I was wondering whether this was the best decision? I have seen advice online that it's best to set up a Ltd company and sort out my own taxes, trouble is I wouldn't know where to start!

My colleague is with the same agency as me and gets paid through them, he gets the same hourly rate as I do. He is quite sketchy on how much he takes away each week which is understandable. It just seems that everytime I look at my pay packet from my umbrella company they seem to take quite a lot from me...

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

Kris

SteProud

Hi there

I work for an umbrella company and a specialist contractor accountant so I'm not impartial but there are a couple of things to consider.

have you thought about contracting via your own limited company? If you are earning more than around £35K a year and are not caught by IR35 you will almost certainly be better off.

Re your take home pay from your umbrella, how are the deductions itemised on your payslip?

other than tax, employers and employees NI, what else is being deducted?

Glass_Half_Empty??

Umbrella companies are there to make money from you. Whichever way they like to dress it up they are doing very little work you could do yourself for a lot more money. On the other hand if you can't be bothered to do it yourself then they do provide a service. Plenty of advise on here of how to do it yourself just search