Average take home as a percentage

[bulletprooffool]

So I ahve just signed a new contract and am wading through the usual umbrella / Ltd Company conundrum.

I was wondering . . just at an average what percentage you take home as a ltd company / umbrealla in your cases (ie . . what to expect real world)

Fo far I have spoken to a few people and gotten:

LTD - 70%
LTD - 80%
Umbrella - 75%

All I want to do is get a list as above generated - that is independent of all the agencies and their dream figures.

(PS - I did search and could not find a thread like this on the forum . . )

[bulletprooffool]

So I ahve just signed a new contract and am wading through the usual umbrella / Ltd Company conundrum.

I was wondering . . just at an average what percentage you take home as a ltd company / umbrealla in your cases (ie . . what to expect real world)

Fo far I have spoken to a few people and gotten:

LTD - 70%
LTD - 80%
Umbrella - 75%

All I want to do is get a list as above generated - that is independent of all the agencies and their dream figures.

(PS - I did search and could not find a thread like this on the forum . . )

Oops, spelling errors above - apologies, had not yet handed my notice in and was typing on the sly at work. . .

[MPwannadecentincome]

hint - try searching for calculators, put your figures in and compare the results.

use an independent site calculator not a brolly or agency one.

[NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25]

Youre going to get a bunch of 'how long is a piece of string' answers because it all depends on your circumstances, expenses etc.

As a general rule you can probably expect around 2/3rds take home pay for say a decent per day contract with average expenses (ie youre not travelling up and down the country to get to this job).

But like I said, it all depends on so many variables its hard to give an exact answer.

[Drewster]

(PS - I did search and could not find a thread like this on the forum . . )

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...hlight=average

[VectraMan]

(PS - I did search and could not find a thread like this on the forum . . )

You should be an agent. You obviously find no shame in lying.

[NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25]

You should be an agent. You obviously find no shame in lying.

Ouch!!! Friggen hell that was cold ....... I mean true........ but still ......

[chef]

as an example to highlight what the above have said

example 1) lets say you have a fantastic contract at say 500 per day a 5 min walk from home, its a secure site and personal laptops are not allowed therefore not required, you claim the minimum home as an office, you do your own accounts (i.e no accountancy fees), effectively you have virtually no company expediture. You pay yourself the minimum wage and claim the rest as quarterly dividends taking every last penny out of co. account (minus tax and vat of course).

now compare that to say

example 2) again on 500 per day but you need to get a taxi to the airport, a return weekly flight, accommodation abroad during the week, you take the services of a £100+ a month accountant, you also pay for several business related subscriptions, you get your contracts checked by a lawyer, you invest in an expensive laptop for work, you also invest in a server solely used for work, you give yourself a pensoin, claim every single possible business related expense (and your co. likes spending)

the figures %'age takehome would be very different due to tax paid on the 2 different situations above and depending on whether you personally view the business related expenses as in your %age takehome or not.

[Tarquin Farquhar]

As a general rule you can probably expect around 2/3rds take home pay for say a decent per day contract with average expenses (ie youre not travelling up and down the country to get to this job).

And of course the more your expenses, the less you take home, since obviously take-home = billing - expenses - tax etc.

[moorfield]

And of course the more your expenses, the less you take home, since obviously take-home = billing - expenses - tax etc.

I use a similar measure but split my expenses 3 ways:
1 expenses I have to incur running my ltdco (number bods, insurance etc.)
2 expenses I have to incur getting to/from clientco (trains etc.)
3 everything else that I put through the books "beacuse I can" (broadband, mobile, home office, software licenses, laptop etc.)

I see expenses 3 as part of my "take home" - it's just a convenient way of extracting from ltdco to reduce corp tax but paying off those bills. Expenses 1+2 I have to incur to work.

So my own measure of "take home" is
billing - (expenses 1+2) - (ni + paye) - (corp tax) - (additional self assessment)

This leaves me a "take home" figure which is then usually spread across
1 net salary + expenses 3
2 divi payments
3 retained earnings in ltdco
4 pension

Some may disagree that 3+4 should be seen as "take home" but I regard it as such because I still "control" it, some of it just happens to be in an inconvenient location.

Looking at this calculation for my 2007/08 financial year I see

"take home" / billing = 73%

ie. 27% of billing was lost to tax and necessary expenses incurred operating my ltdco and working.