Self Employed consultant expenses???

Jimbo30003000

Good morning all, I have reposted this under a more suitable heading in the hope of gaining some expert answers.


I am working for a German company, I work from home for three weeks of every month and I travel overseas for the remainder. I innitially went onto a Direct National Insurance scheme but I am now looking to reclass myself as a self employed consultant, the organisation has no problem with this but also no epxerience. They have suggested if this is the case then all expenses have to be paid first by myself then claimed back, flights to Australia, Brazil etc are too much expenditure for me.

Is there a way I can be classed as a consultant allowing me to claim back office and car expenses in the UK but also have international travel expenses paid by the company up front, ie some part of my contract that stipulates all travel expenses are pre paid by the company??:(

Many thanks as always.:T

heretolearn_2

Yes, there's no legislation for or against it. It's a matter of negotiating what is in the contract. It could be that there own internal policies require this.

We pay some of the travel expenses directly for our consultants, then it's just a standard travel expense for us, and the fact that it's for an outside consultant is irrelevant.

Having said that, we can do this in UK, but I have no idea about German laws, so maybe it is different there.

You need to find out why they want to do it this way.

Jimbo30003000

Thanks for this I appreciate it. I am the first international employee for them so it is a learning curve. In Germany every country carries a certain amount of expense, so for example if I visit a client in the UK I get paid £30 a day to cover meals, in India it is £40 a day etc etc, perhaps they will have trouble paying a consultant this and I would not mind paying them and claiming this back but the travel expenses, airlines etc are huge so I will suggest this is classed as a normal travel expense. Thanks again.

trailingspouse

My OH works as a consultant, through our own limited company. We simply invoice the client for the travelling expenses (flights, hotels, taxis, food) plus the daily rate. If paying up front is a problem, use a credit card - by the time the bill needs to be paid, your invoice should have been paid (not always - some clients drag their heels I admit). We sometimes invoice separately for the cost of flights and hotels, so the invoice for that will be sent to the client before the trip has been made or the work done, and they seem quite happy with that.