Have umbrella companies told their clients what their plans are after April?

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

They seem to have lost sight of the original problem, which is clearly NIC avoidance by large cos. Instead they're going round tackling a symptom at a time, well down the line from what the original issue was!

Yep they do have a tendency to go with the sticking plaster approach which invariably leads to woolly, impractical, overly complex legislation like IR35. The trouble is, the politicians are under pressure to deal with 'tax avoidance' as it is perceived by the general public (so wrongly for the most part) and they are under pressure from the big Trades Unions to make sure everyone has employment rights (whether they want them or not). They take the problem to HMRC and tell them they want legislation to solve all their political problems - HMRC probably tell them it's not possible but the politicians insist anyway and we all end up with a headache from banging our heads against a brick wall

[lucyclarityumbrella]

Yep you're right. We are making it clear to newbies but I am not sure how widespread that practice is

This is the advice we are giving our new enquiries at the moment;

"Please note that as of April 2016, there are anticipated Legislation changes that may restrict contractors claiming Travel & Subsistence expenses unless they can prove that they are not under the Supervision, Direction and Control of the end client. Until the Finance Act is released, no-one can be more specific as to how this is going to impact contractors as a whole; so for the purposes of any Take Home Pay figures, we would recommend that you run a calculation without any expenses to reflect your Take Home post April should these changes be introduced as expected."

This is proving to be an enlightening topic of conversation with any contractor (whether newbie or not ). From what I am being told it appears most companies are avoiding mentioning it at all!

[Waldorf]

From what I am being told it appears most companies are avoiding mentioning it at all!

That does not surprise me at all.

[Yonmons]

You will be surprised how many so called professional contractors are still not aware of the changes from April out their in the real world.

[Chris12]

Hi, I've just received an email from Brookson stating what change is about but its totally lost me, loads of words but no real substance.
I've worked at current location for about 5 years now so can't claim T&S to normal place of work as over the 2 year cut off.
However, occasionally I do need to work offsite (about 100 miles away) away so stay in a hotel and on return claim hotel, food and petrol money which I do by submitting an expenses claim through my Umbrella Company who invoice company where I actually work and then I get money back a week or two later.
From what I've managed to determine so far is that I am subject to SDC (surprised if anyone isn't) so am I correct in assuming that I can't claim 'any' of my expenses back until the end of the financial year or is it just the tax relief I can't claim?
For example, say hotel is £400, food is £50 and petrol is £45 (£0.45 a mile I think, may be wrong but just an example) does it mean I can only claim all of this back once a year?
Travelling off site at the moment is rare but it looks like it will ramp up in about a year and if I can only claim once a year that's going to be a killer for me. I don't really want to go Ltd but this may force me to.
I'll send above to Brookson as well to see what they say but there seems to be almost zero info on what's actually going to happen.
Cheers
Chris

[Waldorf]

I'll send above to Brookson as well to see what they say but there seems to be almost zero info on what's actually going to happen.
Cheers
Chris

As I mentioned in my first post, Brookson's went into melt down when the MSC model was closed down, they didn't answer their phones for months.

Brookson's do not have many clients using their brolly service so I guess you will be pressured into signing up to their limited company service.

Advice - ship around for another accountant!

[Chris12]

Hi, I did look at various umbrella companies when I started and heard horrifying stories about most of them and as Brookson have so far been ok with me I'll stick with them for now.
I did do some more digging last night and looked at the HMRC forms (Feb 16) and from what I can gather (I'm no tax expert or accountant) but it seems like all they are trying to do is stop people claiming T&S to their 'permanent' place of work, i.e. what you can claim for in the first two years of a new job. However, it looks like you can still claim as normal if you claim T&S to a 'temporary' place of work so I should be ok!!
As things stand I won't be claiming anything until next year anyway so will stay as is for now, let the dust settle and then then see what happens so hopefully I won't get caught up in any mass panic to change to a different setup.
Chris

[Fred Bloggs]

As I mentioned in my first post, Brookson's went into melt down when the MSC model was closed down, they didn't answer their phones for months.

Brookson's do not have many clients using their brolly service so I guess you will be pressured into signing up to their limited company service.

Advice - ship around for another accountant!

+1 I remember too, I'd never use Brookson.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Hi, I did look at various umbrella companies when I started and heard horrifying stories about most of them and as Brookson have so far been ok with me I'll stick with them for now.
I did do some more digging last night and looked at the HMRC forms (Feb 16) and from what I can gather (I'm no tax expert or accountant) but it seems like all they are trying to do is stop people claiming T&S to their 'permanent' place of work, i.e. what you can claim for in the first two years of a new job. However, it looks like you can still claim as normal if you claim T&S to a 'temporary' place of work so I should be ok!!
As things stand I won't be claiming anything until next year anyway so will stay as is for now, let the dust settle and then then see what happens so hopefully I won't get caught up in any mass panic to change to a different setup.
Chris

A very sensible position to take Chris IMHO and your summary is quite correct, according to HMRC publications although it could be argued (quite successfully) that the temporary workplace rules have not changed, this legislation is purely to reduce the number of people who claim tax relief on travel expenses as HMG hatstands have decided it's too many

[Chris12]

I phoned Brookson's today and their stand is that you can't get 'any' tax relief on 'any' expense claim. They said I can invoice the company I actually work for to reimburse my actual expenses, i.e. hotel, mileage, etc and this will then get added to my hours worked pay which is then taxed. This would appear to mean I'll only ever get a percentage back of what it actually costs me to work away at the companies request. The more I look into this the more it gives me the impression its just one big mess (being polite) and that no one really knows what is/isn't exempt. Luckily I've got some time to see how it all pans out but I'm certainly glad I don't need to claim anything at the moment