Agency nurse ltd co/umbrella co advice plz?

tiredwithtwins

Hi
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice please on working as an agency nurse but being paid as a ltd company or for an umbrella company.
I lecture 15 hours a week which I will soon have as my main job (this is for a college agency, so not a substantive post), and I have just signed up with an agency who allow you to be paid as a limited company or through an umbrella company, or as plain old paye.
I intend to work a minimum of 12 hours a week for them (well, they do pay twice what the nhs currently pays me!). I will also be travelling at least 20 miles (as the work is outside my home city) so will have petrol to pay out for as well as laundry expenses for washing uniform.
I know it means I will take home more pay, but just wondered if anyone had any advice on what's the best option ... especially any healthcare professionals who currently do this.
thanks for any replies
Sue

CrowCrow

Umbrella is the easiest, you become an 'employee' of the umbrella company so the money you get is PAYE and you don't have to do anything.

Limited is the most tax efficient but will involve more work from you, even if you have an accountant you will have to keep on top of self assessment, expenses etc.

IMO if you earning <£20,000 through this I would just go Umbrella. I would also go Umbrella if I wasn't planning on sticking at it for long.

milliemonster

Having worked agency myself and faced with this option at the time, I discussed it with my brother who is self employed and we went through the figures together. I guess it comes down to what you will earn by being paid through an umbrella as opposed to paye, I was going to be charged £80 a month accountancy fees to go with the umbrella which meant I would have to work a minimum number of hours to make it work, plus the difference in hourly rate I was being offered was between £2-4 it just wasn't worth it so I went paye, if they had offered at least a third more per hour then I. Wild probably have been worth doing it through umbrella