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Looking for information about the IR35 legislation? Then you’ve found the perfect guide that simply explains what the IR35 is, how it can affect your finances and how best to work around it.

Ever since the IR35 legislation was introduced it has been a murky area for contractors and freelancers. However, the intention of the legislation was to prevent full-time employees from profiting from side-lines without paying extra tax on the additional earnings.

In recent events there has been some controversy regarding who is and who is not affected by the IR35 – Public sector workers in particular. As a result many contractors find IR35 completely unjust while leaving a bitter taste in the mouths when the ‘Office of Tax Simplification ‘called for IR35 to be culled or reviewed in 2011, yet this was ignored by the UK coalition government.

So with no help from the Government, it is up to you to protect yourself from the IR35, or if you do fall within the IR35, it is up to you to manage your accountants intelligently in order to offset any losses to the tax man for your additional earnings.

Does the IR35 apply to me?
Simply put, if you are a contractor, the IR35 should not apply to you. However, you still need to clearly demonstrate to the HMRC and document that you are a ‘self-employed contractor’. There are guidelines for this on the HMRC website, but if all the technical jargon is getting in the way, it’s always worth speaking to a specialist contractor accountant to simplify things and have the IR35 explained in detail from an accountant’s perspective.

What should I do if the IR35 does apply to me?
If you can prove that you are a contractor working through your own limited company, you are except from the IR35. However, if you are an employee doing extra work as an additional source of income, or you fail to sufficiently prove that you are full-time contractor, then it may be worthwhile creating a limited company.

By creating a limited company you will still be required to pay more tax on any additional earnings, however, you can offset these losses by claiming travelling and accommodation expenses.

So in conclusion, the best way to avoid the IR35 is to be completely honest about your earnings and keep well managed accounts. Even should you find yourself within the terms of Intermediaries Legislation 35, there are still benefits to be had.

Credit cards offer convenience when it comes to purchasing services and goods. Credit cards with rewards make it even more worthwhile to own a credit card. This is because they allow you earn points that you can redeem for benefits such as free airline tickets, free hotel expenses, gift certificates, etc. Other credit cards apart from the ones that allow you to accumulate points and redeem them for a reward include cards that earn you rewards when you use them on automobile, travel, gas, hotel, expenses among others.

Credit cards with rewards are perfect for you if you are a regular shopper and at the same time you are able to make prompt monthly payments otherwise, the interest charged on your balances will overshadow the rewards you have already earned.  It is advisable to first of all compare the options for redemption offered by the various cards on the points you earn as you spend. The best way to determine this is by reading and understanding the terms and conditions stated on the application forms of the cards. The terms and conditions clause outline the rewards schemes of the cards.

The market is flooded with credit cards with rewards and it is best to choose the one that has rewards that will be useful to you. The other factor to consider when choosing such a card is whether or not it will give you the best and highest savings on your purchase, because your main objective should be to earn maximum points as you spend your money. As you compare the different credit cards with rewards available, avoid cards that charge high monthly or annual fees and high interest charges. The rewards you earn will not compensate for the high charges. continue reading…

The role of contractor has always been sought after. However, in this time of economic and financial crisis – people have not got guaranteed permanent jobs anymore, so heads are turning more towards contractor roles. Contractor roles, simply put, have their advantages: Flexibility and control, financial bonuses, opportunity to develop different skills, possibility of travel or to work from home,  scope to work with lots of different employers in private and public sector….the list goes on. With permanent jobs you get the ‘security’ (or what you perceive to be true in this economic climate) held in pension schemes and paid annual leave – but when you make, the what can be scary, leap it will be possible to see benefits in all aspects of your career.

First Step into becoming a Contractor

The first thing you need to do when making the move to contractor is to simply; find a contract. You may not think that there are many contract roles out there due to the current economic climate, but you’d be wrong. Companies are now looking to hire people short term, then support them long term.  Important things to do:

• Update your CV – Focussing on key skills that help you stand out as a contractor whilst talking about recent employments and achievements within
• Target Recruitment agencies that specialise in your chosen field.

Limited and Umbrella

There are two ways to function as a contractor – limited and umbrella. Limited companies are ideal for contracts of 3 months or more and when annual take home money is £25,000 plus. Umbrella companies are basically the opposite – working for people with short term, low value contracts.

• Umbrella – take home pay between 60%-65% of your contract value (Not much different to working as a permanent employee).
• Limited – take home pay between 75%-80% of your contract value, however there is far more paperwork and legal issues to take note of.

IR35

On finding a new contract, the next step you need to take is to establish your IR35 status. Before signing your contract you need to check whether you fall inside or outside of IR35 legislation – otherwise you may be finding yourself in hot water somewhat. If you find yourself within the legal boundaries of IR35, in simple terms you will take home significantly less money. So, you can see why it would be more sensible to operate through a limited company, if you are inside IR35, claim expenses, reap the rewards from the Flat Rate VAT scheme and ultimately only pay tax on 95% of your contract. Using a specialist contractor accountant can help you with this.

You should always ask around when selecting a contractor accountant, and remember that it is better to find a specific accountant to your field of work. It is essential that you find contractor accountants just for you, and take your time selecting one – it should not be a rushed haphazard decision. Look for firms that have been established a while and are backed by credible third party claims. It is also possible to see how successful a company is purely on the amount of awards they have accumulated from organisations such as Accountancy Age, National Customer Service and PCG.

Logging onto the computer to check my emails, a task I tend to do with absurd regularity, I noticed that I had an email from my bank suggesting that I take out some life insurance. It was actually something that I needed to do, so using it as a prompt I decided that I would actually do the job properly as the banks aren’t known for offering the best deals around. Logging onto the quote comparison sites was virtually as easy as logging on to my emails and within 15 minutes I’d got the quote I wanted. The reassurance that one gets from seeing the quote you have elected to go with compared to the other quotes from other companies makes the whole exercise well worth it and should almost be a requirement for people taking out financial products as so many people are probably paying way too much money and wasting their hard earned wages lining the pockets of the banks. The banks that were already given lots of our hard eared money a few years ago when some nearly crashed as a result of their absurd lending practices. Whilst I was logged on to the insurance comparison websites I was also able to get quotes for a number of other financial products I was able to get quotes from a life insurance comparison and the best rates for holiday insurance and also critical illness cover.

Source: http://lifeinsurancecomparison.uk.com/blog/2012/01/26/great-deal-using-life-insurance-comparison-website/

Credit card companies and financial institutions have gone out of their way to attract people to get the cards. However, the lure of the instant approval credit cards have left many people in huge credit card debts that they are unable to pay. The main victims of these cards are those people who are not disciplined in their spending and who frequently spend more than they earn.

There are many options where a person can get the credit cards. The internet is one such option, as well as local merchant shops. The youth are the main target of the advertisements of the companies dealing in these cards as they are easier to sway. The young people may not have experienced the pain of having to bear the financial responsibilities like adults. Besides, one needs to be experienced in the use of the credit cards to understand the pitfalls involved.

The advertisements used to entice the young people are designed in a way that they show only the advantages of using the cards without barring the disadvantages. These luring advertisements have landed many young people into the financial problems that are being experienced in the society today.

The use of the instant credit cards is good if the user is disciplined enough, and is able to settle the balances at the end of every month. A person can take advantage of the offers that are made by some departmental stores where the applicant of the card can make savings of 10% to 20% of the purchases of the day. These discounts can even be better if the one is making huge purchases. continue reading…

I used to take everything for granted, my family, my job, my house, my new car, even my health. After a close friend suffered a life threatening heart attack I was forced to re-evaluate what was important to me in life. I was keen to ensure I had the right cover in place so that those close to me would be financially secure should the worst happen. I was surprised at how difficult it was to get straightforward clear information on the best products for my circumstances. After wasting a lot of time on the internet and not getting the results I wanted, I was fortunate enough to find the life assurance cover website. Not only was I able to increase my cover and the amounts of money my family would receive, I even managed to reduce my premiums. Now I try and make the most of my time with friends and family, secure in the knowledge everything is covered. Sometimes you do not appreciate the things you have and the people close to you until there is the threat of them being taken away. My friend made a full recovery and was even able to get cover after I recommended quote life insurance to him.

Source: http://lifeassurancecover.uk.com/blog/2011/12/14/dont-take-life-granted-get-life-assurance-cover-website-today/

I had always expected to become a teacher as both my mother and father had been teachers. It didn’t help by the fact that I had never really contemplated doing anything else and upon leaving school with the appropriate A levels for a teacher degree, I duly started at Teacher Training College. Three years later I was applying for teaching jobs in my home town, as I had never really contemplated working elsewhere. I married my child hood sweetheart and started a family with two lovely children and everything was wonderful. Wonderful apart from the fact that I really didn’t enjoy my work, I loved the teaching side of things, but all the form filling and unnecessary rubbish we had to do to support the vagaries of whatever the government of the day had decided that we should do to teach our children in a slightly better way than we had done the year before. This carried on for years and I grew to despise the job and tried to lose myself at weekends in whatever DIY project I had at the time. I loved the way that no one was there to tell me that I had to do it another way or that I had to fill in a form for someone so that they could produce a piece of analysis that would inevitably be used to tell me that I wasn’t as good as someone else, somewhere, and because of this I would to produce another action plan saying how I would improve, and so on and so on.

Anyway, one morning I decided that I would chuck it all in and become a full time do it yourself man and six years later I haven’t looked back. I have am independent in mind and body, I love my work and I’m probably a better person for it. I have had to become financially literate and now know my income protection policy from my mortgage protection insurance and my VAT rates from my National Insurance, thanks to mortgage protection quotes.

Source: http://mortgageprotectionquotes.org/blog/2011/12/14/i-saved-small-fortune-life-insurance-mortgage-protection-quotes-website/

Logging onto the computer to check my emails, a task I tend to do with absurd regularity, I noticed that I had an email from my bank suggesting that I take out some life insurance. It was actually something that I needed to do, so using it as a prompt I decided that I would actually do the job properly as the banks aren’t known for offering the best deals around. Logging onto the quote comparison sites was virtually as easy as logging on to my emails and within 15 minutes I’d got the quote I wanted. The reassurance that one gets from seeing the quote you have elected to go with compared to the other quotes from other companies makes the whole exercise well worth it and should almost be a requirement for people taking out financial products as so many people are probably paying way too much money and wasting their hard earned wages lining the pockets of the banks. The banks that were already given lots of our hard eared money a few years ago when some nearly crashed as a result of their absurd lending practices. Whilst I was logged on to the insurance comparison websites I was also able to get quotes for a number of other financial products I was able to get quotes for life assurance cover the best rates for holiday insurance and also critical illness cover.

Source: http://lifeassurancecover.uk.com/blog/2011/12/13/i-found-site-called-life-assurance-cover-and-saved-over-153-annum/

I have used the same insurance adviser ever since I had my first motorcycle and I needed to arrange cover. They always seemed to work very hard trying to get me the most competitive premiums and the process seemed to take an hour or so and I would always walk away with a hand written cover note and a feeling that it was very expensive but I had the best deal I could get. Looking back on those days, the trust I had in the staff in that office was based on nothing other than blind faith combined with the hope that if I thought it sounded absurdly expensive I might try the insurance broker along the road. Although having already taken an hour or more to get the insurance sorted out, the last thing I would want to do is to go through the entire process again and waste my entire day off. These days of course, like virtually everyone, I no longer use an insurance broker.

I use the online comparison sites and the rest of the population probably use the telephone. The online process is so advanced these days that, rather than taking half an hour, the time need to obtain a quotation is now down to 10 minutes and every form and cover notes are generated on a PDF file which arrived in your inbox within seconds. Whilst you’re on the website the system provides the facility to obtain other financial products as, from the comparisons site point of view, why stop with car insurance? Within minutes you can get a life insurance comparison. Arrange travel insurance and arrange a hire car to pick you up from the airport. The freedom the system allows is key, as you can access for your self a list of premiums and see for yourself how much cheaper one insurance company is over another

Source: http://www.lifeinsurancecomparison.uk.com/blog/2011/11/17/always-make-sure-you-get-life-insurance-comparison-buying/

Christmas is around the corner. Those turkeys will be roasting on the grill, and families will be out shopping all around the world to buy their Christmas gifts. Imagine – the stores will be crowded. People will be brushing elbows to get around the malls. People will be bumping into each other just to get around, and stores will sell out of items before some people get to the shop. Why go through hassles when you can do some online shopping.

Online shopping enables you to do some shopping comparisons and check out shopping reviews. Find out what others have to say about certain stores and products online so you can get an idea where to shop.

Shop til you drop online without worrying about the hassles of bumping into crowds or wasting time going to stores to find out the product you want is sold out. continue reading…