Self-employment advice needed please :)

[europa]

Hi everyone, am new to this forum.

I'm based in the UK and considering an offer to work for a small US company as an independent financial contractor.

The role would be to create business for them here in Europe. I would be working PT and from home. They would pay me a fixed monthly salary + commission on any sales i make. There is no requirement to work a fixed number of hours and the contract could be terminated by either party at anytime. There is currently no contract in place as i have not yet decided whether to accept their proposal.

What i need advice on is how best to run such a business. I would love to go down the LTD route, but i'm concerned i may fall foul of IR35. However, i've spoken to an accountant who suggests i would be fine. But i'm not convinced! As such, i'm looking for other opinions on this.

If i instead register as self-employed, do i pay more NICs to make up for the fact that the employer doesn't pay any NIC for me? My research suggests i would NOT, but again any help to confirm this would be appreciated.

If you need more info, please ask.

Thanks in advance!

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

The best site for you to check out id the PCG:

http://www.pcg.org.uk/cms/index.php

They do a contract check (when you have one).

And we just so happen to have launched out contractor package recently :p

Check it out:

http://www.cheapaccounting.co.uk/contractors/

:p:p

This is so not a 'plant' - honest guys

[europa]

Cheers! :)

However, as i do not have a contract yet, does anyone have any initial thoughts on the above ? i could probably get the company to word the contract pretty much as i wish, but does it really sound like i fall outside IR35 (as was suggested by the accounting company i spoke to)?

[europa]

hi again, does anyone have any further thoughts? any advice would be really appreciated. :|

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

You would need to get the contract to verify for IR35.

It is a very complex area and I doubt anyone will give an opinion on here without the contract being vetted.

[tom applegate]

As with everything business related - do your due diligence! Check out what you can, and what you can 't, get proper advise so you're not caught short later.

[MrPAYE]

A few brief points:


Be careful re contract-based advice. HMRC only acknowledge the contractual terms if these accurately relect the working practices between the two parties. There is therefore no such thing as an "IR35 friendly" or "self employed friendly" contract.
If you are doing regular work for the same organisation then there is indeed a very high risk of IR35 kicking in if you operate as a Ltd co or being classed as an employee if working as a sole trader.
From a selfish point of view, IR35 is always going to bad news for you if applicable as it is your company that has to address unpaid tax/NI etc. However if HMRC rules that sole trader has been incorrectly paid as self employed, it is the paying organisation, i.e. US co in your case, who would be legally responsible for settling. This is very general of course as there is often legal agreements allowing the payer to recover the amounts from the indivdual and there are other tax rules to consider, i.e. whether you are creating a presence in the UK for the overseas co.
In other words, you need to take proper professional advice about this. Or at least persuade the US co to get it and pay for it on your behalf !