Today there are around a quarter of a million people taking on IT contracts in the UK, and the demand for their services is high. There are many reasons employers want to take on temporary rather than permanent staff but veteran IT professionals, with their high level of expertise, are especially attractive because it’s easy for them to ‘plug in’ to an existing team.
Get a quick quote and find out which umbrella company works for you
Should I join an umbrella company or form a limited company? This is an issue all contractors face and there’s no right answer.
We’ve collected together a selection of our preferred umbrella companies so it’s really easy to get started with a quote and see how much more you could be bringing home every week.
If you’re still making up your mind, here are some factors you may wish to consider:
Umbrella Companies…
Reduce your administrative load
Umbrella companies charge an up-front fee but they do provide an important service – they take all the hassle out of your administration. You don’t have to worry about working out your taxes or making sure you’re paying the right amount of national insurance. It’s all done for you and all you need to do is collect your gross pay. Umbrella companies are an ideal option if you’re just beginning your IT contract work as it lets you see if this is the life for you without having to shoulder the responsibility of running your own business.
Circumvents all IR35 worries As the umbrella company is technically your employer, you don’t have to worry about being take to court because you’ve fallen foul of IR35.
A Limited Company…
Gives you tax breaks In exchange for the hassle of managing your taxes, HMRC allows contractors with a limited company to write off things like travel, accommodation and other working expenses. You will, however, have to pay corporation tax and VAT, if you decide to register for it.
Allows you to draw dividends and avoid higher taxation Running a limited company can be extremely lucrative, especially if you keep abreast of the changes in taxation laws. However, HMRC is closing the loopholes and reducing the tax-free allowances on dividends that have allowed limited companies to pay out significantly higher returns to their owners. Limited companies are still the way to go if you want to maximise your take-home pay but they demand real commitment and understanding of your financial affairs. A lot of limited company owners find themselves in the position of hiring an accountant to provide contractor advice and allow them to offload some of the more complex financial procedures.
So which is right for you? Umbrella or limited company? Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what’s more important: your money or your time.
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Privacy Notice
Contractor Supermarket Limited (hereafter called Contractor Supermarket) respects your privacy and will process your data in a fair and lawful way. This privacy notice outlines the way in which Contractor Supermarket collects, processes and shares your data and how long we retain it for.
The Information we collect We will collect the following personal data:
Name; Contact number; Address; E-mail Address; Rate of pay; Employment contact details; Hours worked; IP address; Browser type and version; Location and time zone settings; Your marketing preferences and Your communication preferences.
Where we get our data from We will receive your data from:
Directly from you via phone, email or on our website; Introducers; Suppliers; Analytics providers; Advertising networks; Search information providers; Companies house; Electoral register; Land registry and Other publicly available sources.
What we use the information for We will use the data for:
Providing you with the services that you have requested from ourselves; Marketing and market research; Fraud prevention and processing payments to third parties.
Contractor Supermarket may from time to time use aggregated, or redacted data for any purpose. Although this comes from your personal data it is not considered personal data, as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity, and we are free to use this at any time.
Legal basis for processing data
Contractor Supermarket will process personal data for the purposes already stated on one or more of the following legal basis:
Consent – you have consented to us using your personal data by adding your details to our website and reading this privacy notice. You can withdraw consent at any time by directing an email to [email protected];
Contractual obligation– It is necessary for us to process your data to perform the contract between Contractor Supermarket and yourself, or to take any necessary steps at your request prior to entering into this contract;
Legal obligations – we may need to process data in order to fulfil legal obligations for example audit purposes;
Legitimate interests – we may use your personal data to operate, promote or improve our services or use your data for analytics or in order to protect our business.
Contractor Supermarket will use your data for the purpose for which it was collected unless we consider that we reasonably need to use it for another reason if that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we would like to use your data for any other purposes we will notify you and provide an explanation as to the legal basis under which we will be able to use your data.
Data retention
Contractor Supermarket will only keep your data:
As long as necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations or As long as necessary to fulfil legal and regulatory obligations
Contractor Supermarket will determine the length of time we can keep your data by considering the above and:
Potential risk from unauthorised use or disclosure; the purposes for which we process your data and If we can achieve the same results some other way without requiring your data
We may anonymise your data allowing us to retain for as long as we wish as it can no longer be associated with yourself.
Transfer of data
Contractor Supermarket ensure that there are adequate jurisdictional data protection regulations in place should your data be transferred outside of the EEA(you will be informed if this is necessary), Your data is currently stored inside the EEA and Contractor Supermarket have data protection policies, procedures and safeguards in place to protect the security of your data.
Your rights You have the right:
To be informed– we will tell you when we collect data what we are going to do with it, primarily through this privacy notice;
Of access – you can contact Contractor Supermarket in righting to request the information that we hold about you;
To Erasure – you can ask for your information to be deleted( this is not an absolute right and will depend on any legal restrictions) We will keep a list of your wish to be deleted to ensure you do not end up in our database again at any future time;
To rectification – you can ask for any information to be amended if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
To restrict processing – tells us to stop processing your data but allows us to keep hold of it for other agreed purposes;
To data portability – to transfer information to another business at your request (most used for instance such as changing bank accounts);
To object – to use of your data for marketing and profiling for marketing purposes. Our Legitimate interests do not outweigh your rights and freedoms, therefore you can cease us processing based on our legitimate interests;
To withdraw consent – you may withdraw consent to the processing of your data at any time, you can withdraw this consent by emailing or calling the following: [email protected], 0800 066 2756;
To complain – if Contractor Supermarket does not satisfactorily deal with your complaint you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Data Security
Contractor Supermarket takes data protection responsibilities very seriously and has ensured that your data is treated fairly, lawfully and with the respect it deserves. Contractor Supermarket has taken adequate measures to protect your data from being accidentally lost, used, accessed or disclosed in any way that has not been authorised. We have these procedures in place to prevent breaches, however, we shall inform you and the relevant regulatory bodies should any data breach occur.
