Posts by category
- Category: Accounting
- How professional clearance works when switching accountants
- Contractor Accountants – compare fees and costs
- How business bank accounts integrate with FreeAgent and Xero
- Shutting down your company – cessation accounts
- How long should you keep your tax and accounting records for?
- Your balance sheet and profit and loss account explained
- Do I need to hire an accountant for my limited company?
- The best online accounting software for a limited company
- How to judge if your contractor accountant is doing a good job or not
- How to maintain accounting records as a limited company contractor
- When is the best time to move to a new accountant?
- How to authorise your accountant to deal with HMRC
- What qualifications does my limited company accountant have?
- Can I charge my limited company rent for using a room in my home?
- ‘Catch up fees’ when you join a new accountant
- Three simple tips to reduce your contractor accountancy costs
- What are the typical duties and responsibilities of a limited company accountant?
- What type of accounts do small companies file with Companies House?
- Can I transfer any personal assets to my limited company?
- Why there is no such thing as an ‘IR35 accountant’
- Category: Contracting
- A Contractor’s Guide to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks
- Your first employee: what to do when your contracting business grows
- How to successfully use LinkedIn in today’s contract job market
- What are the legal requirements of a contract?
- Understanding personal guarantees and individual liability as a company director
- Legal considerations when developing and supplying software as a business
- The complete guide to IT contractor CVs (with free template)
- TAAR: How long do you have to wait to start a new company after an MVL?
- What if your client or recruitment agent fails to pay on time?
- Top 10 expert CV writing tips for IT contractors
- A contractor’s guide to DBS (criminal record) checks
- Contracting in IT Project Management in 2025: what to expect
- Security clearance guide for contractors – with an expert’s top tips
- Networking advice for IT contractors – why keeping in touch is vital
- Why the MSC legislation needs to be consigned to history
- Five areas where HMRC’s Spotlight 67 on MSCs could be better
- HMRC’s own Spotlight shows its MSC legislation to be bizarre
- Why contractor security clearance is ripe for review
- ‘Don’t do a Rachel Reeves and play with fire on your CV’
- The software that Jack built. Or didn’t. Allegedly. Maybe
- A mortgage affordability boost for contractors is here. Can you act on it?
- Lose UK tax residency and be a non-dom: why it’s a pipedream
- Digital platform reporting rules: an IT contractor’s guide
- Who owns your software development code?
- How healthy is the contracting market in 2024, and what challenges lie ahead?
- IT contractor interview tips – including example questions
- Who runs your business when you can’t?
- What should be included in a Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
- The importance of International Data Transfer Agreements for UK IT professionals and contractors
- Can the colour of your clothes give you the edge at an interview?
- How does a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) work?
- Understanding software intellectual property protection
- The risks of contracting without a written contract in place
- Off-payroll / IR35 changes – how has the contract jobs market reacted?
- Category: Expenses
- Claiming relocation expenses through your limited company
- Entertaining clients – can your company pay, and what’s tax-deductible?
- Digital and remote working expenses – what can your company claim?
- Are EVs still tax-efficient for limited company contractors in 2025/26?
- Accommodation expenses as a limited company contractor
- Can I claim for the expense of renting a flat near my new contract?
- How to claim training expenses via your limited company
- Loyalty points and tax: what limited company directors need to know
- 30+ business expenses your limited company can claim
- Can you claim health and medical expenses through your company?
- What expenses can you claim when contracting abroad?
- Is the cost of my smartphone (or smartwatch) an allowable limited company expense?
- Company car vs. own vehicle – claiming tax relief
- Limited company directors and working from home expenses
- Tax exemption for ‘trivial benefits’ provided by your limited company
- Navigating festive gift and entertainment claims through your limited company
- Charity and sponsorship expenses via your company
- Company parties and events – the £150/head expenses exemption
- Can directors claim for personal tax return advice on expenses?
- Can you claim the cost of food and meals as a limited company expense?
- Cycle to work scheme – are limited company directors eligible?
- Limited company expenses – interest, banking and finance costs
- Guide to marketing and advertising expenses for contractors
- Umbrella company expenses – what can you claim for?
- Can I fund childcare costs via my limited company?
- Are the costs of eye tests and corrective glasses tax deductible expenses?
- Claiming back pre-trading expenses from your company – the basics
- Claiming expenses – how professional memberships and subscriptions are treated
- Claiming computer hardware and software expenses via your company
- Contractor travel expenses – what are the 24 month (and 40%) rules?
- Is work clothing an allowable limited company expense?
- Claiming phone, mobile and broadband expenses via your limited company
- Should you pay for health insurance via your limited company or personally?
- Which business travel expenses can contractors claim?
- Category: IR35
- IR35 and off-payroll working: a practical guide for contractors
- Does IR35 apply to umbrella company employees?
- Off-payroll working FAQs for contractors | IR35
- Off-payroll (IR35) – the small company exemption – FAQ
- Contractors, have you tried IR35 Lite? Clients are keen that you do
- Employer’s National Insurance hike, if inside IR35: overview
- Why a right of substitution is vital in determining IR35 status
- Off-payroll working checks hit five IT contractor clients, ‘with more to come’
- Why binning RoS documents may help prove unfettered substitution
- Does IR35 apply to sole traders?
- How important is control as an IR35 status factor?
- Off payroll working – what is the IR35 offset?
- IR35 history – a concise timeline from 1999 to date
- IR35 and ‘Confirmation of Arrangements’
- The importance of professional IR35 contract reviews
- Free IR35 contract template downloads for contractors
- IR35 status – what is the Mutuality of Obligation (MOO)?
- Does the length of a contract influence IR35 status?
- IR35 – are you in business on your own account?
- What happens if you’re selected for an IR35 enquiry?
- The key factors which determine your IR35 status
- Working inside and outside IR35 – what are your options?
- Off-payroll (IR35) – what is a Status Determination Statement (SDS)?
- How should a contractor challenge an IR35 determination?
- PSC contractors caught by Off-Payroll – how do payments work?
- Off-Payroll – can HMRC investigate past contracts retrospectively?
- IR35 off-payroll – what constitutes ‘reasonable care’?
- Calculate how IR35 affects net take home pay
- CEST – HMRC’s IR35 status tool – what it does, and why it is flawed
- Category: Key Guides
- Category: Limited
- Closing a company with an MVL – still a tax-efficient option in 2025?
- Limited company directors: duties and responsibilities explained
- Mandatory identity checks for company directors – what you need to know
- Managed Service Company (MSC) rules – a contractor’s guide
- How much does it cost to set up a limited company in the UK?
- How limited company shares work: shareholders, rights and responsibilities
- Limited company registered address – what are my options?
- How do I switch from being a sole trader to a limited company?
- How to close or pause your limited company (including career breaks)
- Does a limited company need a separate bank account?
- Running a limited company – what is a confirmation statement? [2025 guide]
- Limited companies – what are SIC codes used for?
- Failing limited companies must be on guard for militant creditors
- What is a service address if you’re a limited company director?
- Choose a name for your limited company – the basics
- What are statutory records, and why should you maintain them?
- March 2024 Companies House changes contractors should know about
- Keeping your limited company in a dormant state – a guide for contractors
- Setting up a company – what are Model Articles of Association?
- How much ‘hassle’ is involved in running a limited company?
- Why it is hard to secure contract work as a sole trader
- What is a company secretary, and do I need one?
- Forming a company – Articles and Memorandum of Association
- In what sense is your liability limited if you run a company?
- What is a Certificate of Incorporation?
- Category: News
- Dividend tax hike mooted ahead of November 2025 budget
- What is Open Banking, and what are the benefits for businesses?
- Government confirms employment status consultation by end of 2025
- HMRC’s umbrella tax liability shift: why IT recruitment agencies face new financial risk
- Umbrella tax reform: Agencies and clients to face PAYE liability from 2026
- Government to regulate umbrella companies from 2027
- Umbrella company reform 2026: what ‘joint and several liability’ means
- Companies House P&L filing for all companies – still going ahead?
- The HMRC Loan Charge – a guide for contractors (updated 2025)
- What is an SA302 tax calculation form and how can you download yours?
- Umbrella Company Consultation – the government’s response and the need for clarification
- How does the FSCS protect business bank deposits?
- New Loan Charge review condemned as a ‘farce’ and a ‘sham’
- Inside IR35 worker wins unlawful Employers’ NI deductions case against agency
- Six in 10 recruiters say employer NICs hike hurts hiring
- HMRC to tax Double Cab Pick-Ups as cars from April 2025
- Non-dom’s death isn’t greatly exaggerated; it’s on 06.04.25
- Contractor mortgages ‘unlikely to reflect interest rate cut’
- Elective Deduction Model: a clear, present, future danger
- HMRC hikes unpaid tax late payment interest rate by a ‘punitive’ 2.5%
- Autumn Budget 2024 – All the key points for contractors + expert comments
- Public sector jobs shift ‘yet to boost contract IT market’
- Only dodgy directors need fear the new Companies House
- Seven out of 10 say HMRC off-payroll guidance is not useful
- Is ‘targeting’ contractors fair, or is HMRC talking up avoidance schemes?
- Late payments ‘crackdown’ leaves most limited company advisers cold
- HMRC’s umbrella director indemnity tip to agencies falls a bit flat
- Major job boards for IT contractors ‘advertising salaried jobs below National Minimum Wage’
- HMRC gets the green-light to hire 5,000 extra tax officials, ‘but each one won’t have IR35 on their mind’
- An HMRC list of compliant umbrella companies can make sense of the illogical 12-month term of its tax avoidance blacklist
- No Oscar for HMRC mini-umbrella company film, but at least it’s a warning, of sorts — experts
- Cost to incorporate a new company set to rise on May 1st 2024
- ‘Rolled up’ holiday pay – new rules from January 2024
- How much will the April 2023 Corporation Tax (25%) hike cost your company?
- Corporation Tax rise – do you have more than one company?
- Mini Umbrella Company (MUC) fraud – what is it?
- Pimlico Plumbers ruling – what it means for contractors
- Category: Starting Up
- Category: Tax
- As a director, can I lend money to my limited company?
- Employer PAYE Reference Number (ERN): what it means for contractors
- Close company dividend reporting for directors from the 2025/26 tax year
- How to avoid unlawful (illegal) dividends as a company director
- Benefits in kind 2025/26: from health insurance to cars, how the tax works
- BADR (Business Asset Disposal Relief) for company directors
- Self Assessment tax return guide for contractors and company directors
- MTD in 2025 for contractors: VAT live, ITSA from 2026, CT scrapped
- Depreciation in small company accounts – and why it matters
- Tax relief on equipment and assets – a guide to Capital Allowances
- Employment Allowance – is your limited company eligible? [2025/26]
- National Insurance guide for contractors – updated for 2025/26
- How much is the tax free dividend allowance in 2025/26?
- Calculate the tax cost of buying a car through your limited company (2025/26)
- PAYE – complete payroll guide for limited company contractors
- Free dividend voucher & board minutes templates (UK limited company)
- The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) – how does it work?
- How to create an invoice for your limited company – includes templates
- The UK’s residence-based regime of April 6 2025: explainer
- What is the difference between ‘interim’ and ‘final’ dividends?
- Capital Gains Tax (CGT) explained – rates, exemptions (2025/25)
- How the Flat Rate Scheme (FRS) for VAT works for contractors
- How to calculate student loan repayments as a limited company director
- Have you received a cryptoasset tax ‘nudge’ letter from HMRC?
- How Corporation Tax applies to limited companies
- What taxes do IT contractors pay? Updated for 2025/26
- How dividend waivers work – guide for company directors
- What happens if you overpay company dividends?
- What is a P11D, and when does a director need one?
- What is a director’s loan, and what potential problems should I be aware of?
- HMRC tax codes – how they affect your take home pay
- IT contractors and VAT – what it is, how to register, avoid penalties
- What is a director’s loan? Guide for limited companies
- April 2022 dividend + NI tax rise – how much will it cost you?
- Can you borrow money from your own limited company?
- Category: Umbrella
- Umbrella companies and holiday pay – how is it calculated?
- How to change umbrella companies – a stress-free guide to switching providers
- Do umbrella company employees need to file a self-assessment tax return?
- Why am I paying Employers’ National Insurance as an umbrella contractor?
- What tax do you pay if you’re an umbrella company employee?
- Umbrella companies – ‘gross contract rate’, ‘umbrella rate’, ‘assignment rate’ – what’s the difference?
- The Key Information Document explained for contractors and agency workers
- Why a cheap umbrella company isn’t necessarily the best option
- Umbrella companies – how preferred supplier lists (PSLs) work
- HMRC’s new umbrella company pay calculator put to the test
- How to check if the deductions on your umbrella company payslip are legitimate
- Umbrella company employment costs and other deductions
- How to compare umbrella companies – 15 tips for contractors
- Are online umbrella company reviews trustworthy? What to look out for
- How to close down mini-umbrella company risk as a contractor
- Guide to salary sacrifice for umbrella company contractors
- The Top 10 umbrella company questions – asked by employees
- Can my agent force me to use a particular umbrella company?
- Understand your umbrella company payslip – including an example
- Advantages and disadvantages of using an umbrella company
- Umbrella company contractors – what is the Apprenticeship Levy?
- How to spot the worst umbrella companies
- How do pensions work if you’re an umbrella company employee?
- What to do if your umbrella company goes bust
- How does an umbrella company work? 10-step walkthrough + examples
- What are umbrella company margins?
- Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) – guide for umbrella company employees