Tips on choosing the best umbrella company

Choosing the best Umbrella Company can be quite a challenge to a contractor, considering the number of umbrella companies there is to pick from. You need to select keenly before making your final decision. Remember that choosing the wrong Umbrella Company can bring a negative impact when it comes to your contracting career. This is the reason you need to be serious, as it may bring financial and legal troubles for you further down line. Our compliant Umbrella Company has every reason to be among the best in this industry and this guide will help you to select the right umbrella company. With it, you will be able to differentiate between the good, the bad, and the un-compliant.

Here are our top tips: 

Consider the Company’s Background

This is a very important point to every contractor and recruitment agency. Pay more attention to a company’s background. As a contractor make sure that the company is your right trading solution. Check up its credit rating and look at the duration it has been trading. You can also listen to what other people say about the Umbrella and about their experience with them. Reviews online are a good place to start if you do not know anyone that has experience working with them.

Our company has been well established well within the UK and with it, we guarantee all recruitment agencies and contractors a great level of service. In fact, working with us, you know you are in safe hands.

Transparency

In every institution, transparency is very vital to ensure success. The correct Umbrella Company will provide you with bespoke pay illustrations even before you commit. It ensures that all costs are clearly laid out and you can see the tax and national insurance contributions.

When you are getting paid, the company should give you the full breakdown of your disbursement and payment calculation. Also, they should give you information about your own payslip and employer-side deductions. Checking the deductions for national insurance and taxes will help you determine whether they offer disguised remuneration schemes that are regarded as tax avoidance.

Check the Complete Picture on Fees

When it comes to fee structures, not all umbrella companies are fair and transparent. Here, you must choose wisely. Before joining any contractor Umbrella scheme, find out whether the fees are wholly inclusive, checking whether you have to pay for extras, such as completing tax forms, expenses processing, and processing expenses.

Also, check the exact amount of money you are supposed to pay each week and month means you are less likely to be lumped with unexpected fees only a few weeks in.

All of our fees are made transparent on day one of signing up, so you know exactly how much our margin is.

Verify the Services Given

The best Umbrella Companies have dedicated support teams that are always available by phone and email to respond quickly to customers. As a contractor, there is no need to sign up with an Umbrella that you can’t reach quickly. Moreover, working with a company that takes three days to respond to your message or email is a challenge.

As a company based on this core value, we provide support for longer periods to assist you. We are there to respond to you as quickly as possible and have dedicated staff members who cater to your needs instantly.

The process of Claiming Expenses

Many Umbrella Companies make exaggerated claims on the amount of tax a contractor could save by contracting expenses claims and do this without requesting receipts. This is very risky and without proof of expenses, it could warrant a deeper investigation through non-compliance. All expenses need to have receipts and if your Umbrella company is not requesting receipts, this should ring alarm bells! If you are ever contacted by HMRC, you will need to show copies of your receipts to support your claims. If you can’t provide them, you will find yourself in serious trouble.

Unlike those cowboy operations, we carefully follow HMRC’s expenses guidelines and will not process un-receipted expense claims. We randomly perform receipt checks throughout the year and will occasionally ask to see receipts for expenses you have submitted. By doing this, we make every effort to ensure all flexible workers are compliant with legislation, allowing for peace of mind.

The efficiency of an Umbrella Company

Working through an Umbrella is as straightforward as compared to operating through your own Limited Company. However, as a contractor, it is your mandate to submit timesheets as well as expenses.

The great umbrella companies should be simple to work with and require little to no administrative operation from yourself. They should ensure the process of submitting timesheets and getting paid is simple. We make same-day payments which are a company standard.

The above tips guide on things to consider when choosing your right Umbrella Company. Let our compliant Umbrella Company be your best choice. It operates well and within HMRC’s rules. We will only ever promote arrangements that are both tax-efficient’ and legitimate’.

This article was curated from Evolve CS Group