Hayes umbrella company Crest charging large amount to pay my wages

drummond1981

Hi,

I am a self employed carpenter and am currently working through Hayes recruitment. However they pay you through an umbrella company called Crest. They charge roughly £22 just to take the tax out and transfer my money to me!?!?

Surely this cannot be right and there is a way around this?

Any help or advice would appreciated.

Regards
Dean

PlutoinCapricorn

Many self employed people find their customers directly, invoice them for the gross amount and pay their own NI and income tax.

Are you working at the same place all the time for just one company?

marybelle01

I'm a contractor and my work is also through agency placement. You have to have signed up to the umbrella company somehow - you can't be forced to sign up to one. But some agencies won't allow you to work through them any other way unless you have a limited company - I do so I proccess all my own invoices and returns.

paddyrg

£22/week - it could be partly to cover your statutory insurances (employers/public liability)

princessdon

It's not bad for a brollly.

Otherwise you have insurance, do all your own paperwork, set up a limited company and even then some agencies won't use you.

Don't forger this is deducted from your tax liability too.

dacouch

paddyrg wrote: »

£22/week - it could be partly to cover your statutory insurances (employers/public liability)

Sorry to be a pedant but Public Liability is not compulsory

InsideInsurance

You are also not self employed if you are going via an umbrella but an employee of the umbrella company.

Normally umbrellas do a little more than that in terms of chasing payments, doing invoicing, providing insurances (statutory or otherwise) and ensuring you arent caught by IR35

Your normal other option is to form a limited company and operate through that but you then have accountants to pay and the risks of IR35 but assuming you are outside IR35 then monies will be better this route.

PlutoinCapricorn

Is being a simple Sole Trader completely out of the question? I suppose that agencies will not accept you on those terms.

InsideInsurance

Carpenters may be different but for most contractors outside of the building trade they wont accept sole traders because of the risk of them being considered employees of the agency and so the agency getting stung with employers NI etc

Notmyrealname

drummond1981 wrote: »

Hi,

I am a self employed carpenter and am currently working through Hayes recruitment. However they pay you through an umbrella company called Crest. They charge roughly £22 just to take the tax out and transfer my money to me!?!?

Surely this cannot be right and there is a way around this?

Any help or advice would appreciated.

Regards
Dean

Yes it is right. That is their service charge for the service they provide and you pay it whether you earn £2 a week or £2000.

That is what happens when you are mickey mouse self employed.

There is a way around it and that is to be properly self employed instead of halfassed. YOU invoice Hayes recruitment and YOU do your books or employ the services of a book keeper to do it and YOU complete your self assessment and sort out paying your tax and NI.