Expenses! whose working for who?

**malvolio** · 25 November 2005, 18:29

Ermm... You're clearly not trading as a limited company, you're in one of these pseudo umbrella tax-dodgy wotsists - else why is someone else telling you how to arrange your finances?

If you can claim the hotel bill, you can claim the food, provided you have a receipt. Stop faffing around, bin your current arrangements and either join a sensible umbrella or do the LtdCo thing properly.

VAT registration, BTW, takes about a week to happen, two if the post is slow. I should ask for your fees back.

**mcquiggd** · 25 November 2005, 22:10

If living away from home for work purposes, you CAN claim up to (I think - please do check the IR website or with an accountant) - up to 75 quid a night for accomodation, and around £25 quid a day for food - with receipts is my advice, although Prosperity4 will tell you 'nudge nidge, wink wink, you dont need to for either'.

Check the IT website if you are worried about the advice your Umbrella is giving you - they always quote best case scenarios (i.e. you wont get investigated by the IR of Customs and fined plus pay up monies deemed owed and added interest).

Dont take risks. Run a business.

**Xerxes** · 26 November 2005, 11:29

Once again, you can only claim expenses you have incurred and they are only tax deductible if incurred wholly and necessarily in the performance of your work. YOU must be able to produce receipts or other proof of expenditure (e.g. train ticket, card statement) for ALL claimed expenses when challenged by HMCR. Anyone who says otherwise is deluded or lying.

**Horby** · 28 November 2005, 08:13

Thanks for your response so far.
Apologies if I sound green on this subject, but I am! I have only previously worked as a permie or done short term contracts direct via an agency.

I was somewhat railroaded by my an agency into using this particular umbrella company partly due to the short period of time before starting the contract with the client, and not wanting to have a delay in being paid I agreed.

Is their any particular reason they could be delaying my VAT registration details (they say they have not received them yet some two months on) can they benefir from doing this?

This company sent me a bag full of forms to fill in, they had the company name created for me, subsequently I checked with companies house and the my company had been incorporated some three months before they even knew me (a colleague of mine, his was incorporated 12 months previous) does this indicate any kind of risk or dogdy goings on?

The companies house website does have me registered as a director of my company at least, as I said before though the registered address is that of the umbrella company.

If the majority are of the opinion I am being taken for a ride then I will move to another umbrella company, thats if there is a likewise response in reccomending where to move to.

Does this site permit name & shame?

**malvolio** · 28 November 2005, 09:25

Don't you just love it - such a rush to get into the money making that you can't find time to work out exactly what it is you're doing and why before you sign up. It ain't a game, this is reality...

Anyway, no problems with pre-registered companies, a lot of us have off-the-shelf ones. Don't understand the VAT delay, have you asked the umbrella? You can't invoice and add VAT without a VAT number, although in the first year you can back-track on unclaimed VAT amounts. You could also track down your local VAT office and ask them to confirm what's happening, then challenge the umbrella.

On that subject, if you don't like the umbrella, move. Nobody is forcing you to stay, and you pay them, remember, not the other way round. The agency can't actually dictate it either unless you're tied up as part of some nested VAT avoidance trick some big companies are running, in which case perhaps you need a better agency as well (it works by forcing you to be paid as a permie and unnecessarily forces you inside IR35).

On that point, I'm on record as saying umbrellas are a waste of money anyway, so look into getting your LtdCo sorted and doing it properly.

And yes, name and shame - if you're tellng the truth, nobody is going to sue.

**boredsenseless** · 28 November 2005, 09:41

Originally posted by Horby

Is their any particular reason they could be delaying my VAT registration details (they say they have not received them yet some two months on) can they benefir from doing this?

I can't see any real reason for delaying as they can claim it back anyway unless as pointed out in the thread you are working for a bnk and its a way of avoiding VAT in the first place.

The more likely issue is that HMRC will not register you until they are satisified that you are a company that will earn income over the threshold in the year or have a reason for being registered for other purposes (such as ahigh ratio of VAT supplies that you need to claim back).

If you've got a low rate and only a three month contract they may wait to see the money actually roll in first.

- - ALSO - I've mentioned before - in order to claim you only need proof of expense. In order to reclaim the VAT you need the actual VAT receipt.

**Hex** · 28 November 2005, 12:27

I recently got my VAT registration and it took about 2 weeks to turn around. However, a friend of mine using the same accountants to do the registration, around the same time, didn't get his for over a month. The VAT people blamed a backlog, although this doesn't explain why I got mine sooner.

I would think you may be experiencing the same delays.

Expenses! whose working for who?