Does anyone use umbrellas anymore?

[jon-]

A friend was just telling me about the tax rates he pays using http://www.bedouinlimited.co.uk/ , and quite frankly I'm jealous.

I'm also suspicious, I thought a lot of these were closed up circa Jimmy Carrs rather public issue.

Is it worth looking into further?

[Eric Mc]

Jimmy Carr was using a scheme that still works - apparently.

It all depends on how relaxed you are about the possibility of having to pay a very large tax bill x number of years down the line.

[daemon]

jon- said:

A friend was just telling me about the tax rates he pays using http://www.bedouinlimited.co.uk/ , and quite frankly I'm jealous.

I'm also suspicious, I thought a lot of these were closed up circa Jimmy Carrs rather public issue.

Is it worth looking into further?

Presumably hes a contractor and this saves him having to have a limited company?

All quite legit and normal from what i can tell.

[Eric Mc]

Some are more legit than others.

Some MAY NOT be legit - it's just that HMRC haven't got around to closing them down yet. If they do, it can result in a very painful experience for those who are using that scheme.

As I said earlier, it all depends on what type of risks you want to take.

[jon-]

Said friend is paying 8%. That's a whole lot better than 40%, and it seems to have a lot of people using it.

As usual, thank you for your inputs Eric

[Eric Mc]

jon- said:

Said friend is paying 8%. That's a whole lot better than 40%, and it seems to have a lot of people using it.

As usual, thank you for your inputs Eric

It's easy for someone with a limited company to avoid the 40% tax bracket without getting too silly.

And just because "everybody is doing it" (which will not be true, of course) doesn't mean -

a) it is legal
b) it actually works

IF I have a client who wants to embark on such schemes, I only have one word for them - "Goodbye".

[Ossiantoad]

I'm involved in insurance including in Professional Indemnity insurance for accountants. Insurers don't want to touch anyone that get's involved in tax avoidance schemes. They expect massive claims in the future when all the Jimmy Carrs sue them for poor advice after getting massive tax bills from HMRC.

[98elise]

jon- said:

Said friend is paying 8%. That's a whole lot better than 40%, and it seems to have a lot of people using it.

As usual, thank you for your inputs Eric

How much is he billing per annum? If he's billing 10k then he's paying too much. If he's billing 100k then there is something dodgy going on.

[madmover]

You can still do it so long as you meet a certain criteria. Nothing has been ruled otherwise (yet) as far as I know!

Lots going on about this at the moment still within courts. see http://www.allumbrellacompaniesareequal.com/ for useful info!