Going Freelance/Contract UK
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- isakosmo
Hiya, after 5 years working in-house/in an agency I'm looking at contracting or going freelance.
For people who've already been there, did you set up your own company to pay tax through, go through an umbrella company? I assume before you try get freelance or contract work through an agency you need to sort out a tax setup like that, agencies don't do your PAYE for you do they...? Any companies you can recommend..?
Thanks.
- babaganush0
You won't need to do PAYE. Register as self-employed and keep some aside for your tax return. I suggest getting an accountant as if you can't earn enough to pay their fee there is no point being self-employed.
I believe you can set up umbrella companies through special agents should certain jobs dictate that. If you have a regular client that regularly works with you that requires you be a ltd. co then set this up. It is usually as companies want to it to be crystal clear that you have no employee rights if you work with them significantly.
I suggest a ltd. co be something you do only if you are going to generate decent annual income and or be taking on lsignificant contracts where the client needs assurances of your diligence. If you are sub-contracting, no need (unless in the arforementioned circumstances of a regular client that requires it to negate employees rights).
Hope that helps.
- WeLoveNoise0
This guy used to share alot fo resources like that on his site
http://www.qbn.com/jamble/all gone now
- bjladams0
we (business partner and i) both quit our real jobs last year to start our co. found that getting together with a small business accountant took a lot of stress off. they make $ off us, but help us keep a lot that we would have lost too.
- jamble0
I've written a few bits and pieces based on my experiences as a freelancer over the last few years. None of them cover tax particularly but even though I don't freelance at the moment, I see loads of people struggle to get set up so I might see if I can write something up.
In the meantime, the structure of my site has changed somewhat since I last wrote much on freelancing but here's a few posts if you're interested :)
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/bl…
If anyone wants the docs listed in the last posted, I might be able to dig them out from my archives / backups so feel free to drop me a mail through my site if you want any of them.
Hope they help a little.
Regarding the tax situation, my best advice on that front is to hire an accountant to do your books for you. Seriously, it's a fucking minefield and there's a lot you can and can't write off and you could lose days of your time navigating the HMRC website for information.
A decent accountant should be able to put together a simple set of freelancers books in a day or two so you're not talking huge amounts of money.
Often a good place to start is asking friends etc if they know an accountant but also see if you have a local Tax Assist (http://www.taxassist.co.uk/). They were very helpful last time I used them.
Also, sounds obvious but don't put tax off until deadline day! Every other fucker does that and it's a nightmare trying to phone up and pay and the website is often unreliable.
- isakosmo0
ok thanks for the advice guys... very helpful. I take it you just need to register as a freelancer, then pay an accountant to do your tax return when it's that time? You still need to register as a freelancer if you do contract work right?
- chrisRG0
I went to the same process some months ago and I found out the best thing to do is open your Ltd Company, it will save you some good money on taxes, and yes you need to register as self employed.
If you want to, a friend of mine advice me on a nice accountant, I'm really satisfied so far.- errr yeah defo... can you e-mail me with the accountant for this? need someone that comes recommended..isakosmo
- hektor9110
great choice, best of luck!