Umbrella company

dm19861

This is an issue that I'm quite concerned with so I appreciate any help, many thanks.

I have been freelancing for a company for many years but now they want to push me into using an umbrella company to pay me.

The problem I have is that I also have a full time job - and my employer does not know I am freelancing on the side.

As an umbrella company would essentially treat me as an employee, I would be deemed to have a second job.

My tax code will obviously change, but will my employer be notified that I have another job?

Sandtree

HMRC simply says what tax code to use, they don't rationalise the reason for the change to your employer.

unforeseen

Sounds like they have realised that you are affected by the IR35 legislation that came in at the beginning of April and need to deal with it

Savvy_Sue

If you're using all your tax free allowance in your 'other' job, then that tax code is unlikely to change, you just ask to use BR on your umbrella company job. 

Plus if your tax code changes, as already stated, HMRC don't say why. I've had a bundle of changes through lately, and I have as a courtesy told any colleagues with 'low' tax codes that this is happening. It's then down to them to contact HMRC if they don't understand the change. There are all sorts of reasons and none of them are my business ... 

However, have you checked whether it's a condition of your contract that you notify your employer about any other work you're doing? If it is, I would strongly recommend complying with that. 

Marcon

dm19861 said:

This is an issue that I'm quite concerned with so I appreciate any help, many thanks.

I have been freelancing for a company for many years but now they want to push me into using an umbrella company to pay me.

The problem I have is that I also have a full time job - and my employer does not know I am freelancing on the side.

As an umbrella company would essentially treat me as an employee, I would be deemed to have a second job.

My tax code will obviously change, but will my employer be notified that I have another job?

If you've worked through HMRC's guidance on who is and isn't caught by IR35, and the result is that you aren't, it's worth pushing back on this: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax. If you've been freelancing for many years your services are clearly valuable and they may be prepared to listen.

Either way, you could be breaching your current contract of employment, so worth checking that, too.

Thrugelmir

dm19861 said:

The problem I have is that I also have a full time job - and my employer does not know I am freelancing on the side.

What's the actual problem on the basis there's no conflict between the roles?