An umbrella company acts as an intermediary between you and your end client. They take care of administration for you (accountancy and taxes) removing the responsibility of managing your own personal limited company.

Along with handling your payroll, ensuring your tax and national insurance liabilities are met, being an ’employee’ provides contractors with other benefits too.

These include:

• Sick Pay
• Holiday Pay
• Maternity / Paternity Pay
• Relevant Insurances Included
• Leaving Employment is Easier (as opposed to having to close down a company)
• All Legal Administration is Handled
• Further Support Along the Way

While we do provide similar services to other comparison sites in the market, we differentiate ourselves in three ways:

1. Bespoke comparison software – providing you with near-instant comparisons and we don’t rely on third party software to provide you with your comparisons meaning we can be sure your data is kept safe at all times.
2. Non-bias comparisons – if you’re winning, we all win. Our software uses your contract details to compare service providers that can work with your end client, have the resources available to work with new contractors, and provide you with the best returns.
3. Extensive network of service providers – our team have spent years in the industry creating lasting relationships with our service providers.

While we do provide similar services to other comparison sites in the market, we differentiate ourselves in three ways:

1. Bespoke comparison software – providing you with near-instant comparisons and we don’t rely on third party software to provide you with your comparisons meaning we can be sure your data is kept safe at all times.
2. Non-bias comparisons – if you’re winning, we all win. Our software uses your contract details to compare service providers that can work with your end client, have the resources available to work with new contractors, and provide you with the best returns.
3. Extensive network of service providers – our team have spent years in the industry creating lasting relationships with our service providers.

Every umbrella company we work with ensure that you are covered for every contract you work.

These insurances are:

• Professional indemnity insurance
• Public liability insurance

Be sure to ask any service provider what insurances are included, how much you can claim under the policy, and if there is any excess asociated with a claim.

Generally umbrella companies charge a fixed fee, this is usually on a weekly or monthly basis.

While percentage fees do exist, we don’t compare any service providers that work off of such model. We don’t believe it is in the best interest of our contractors as percentage fees can be expensive, especially if you’re a high earner – after all, the umbrella company does the same amount of work whether you earn £20k per year, or £200k per year.

The majority of umbrella companies charge around £20 – £25 per week, or £80 – £100 per month.

While these recurring costs are umbrella companies’ primary source of income, many umbrellas include hidden fees in the form of sign up fees, exit fees, or surcharges for admin/insurance – we manually vet each and every service provider we work with to ensure you won’t be left with a dent in your take home.

Before April 2016, it was possible for umbrella employees to claim a variety of expenses to reduce their tax bill.

The most common expenses included:

• Travel
• Food / daily meals
• Accommodation
• Phone bills
• Clothing
• Training
• Equipment

Nowdays, it isn’t quite as simple. Chargeable expenses can still be paid to you, however, it must be approved by your end client (or agency) first and paid over in addition to your hours worked. This matches treatment full-time employees receive while working in their roles.

You can also claim tax relief on expenditure incurred solely for the purposes of work on your end of year tax return through HMRC.