Contractors, whether new to contracting or experienced hands, will often be approached by salesmen for tax-efficient pay structures.

You will hear claims such as ;

• We can guarantee you 90% take-home pay
• HMRC compliant
• Guaranteed legal
• Approved by leading Tax Counsel

Great – where do I sign?” might be your first thought. However, you might want to reflect and find out a few things before committing yourself.

How long has the company been around?

Claims are often made that ‘we have been providing contractor solutions for 6 or 7 or 8 years’. Check with Companies House and you may find that the company is relatively newly formed. This could mean that :

a) The company will have little or no track record with HMRC.
b) The company may have no asset base so nothing to fall back on should there be difficult times such as an HMRC investigation.

How can you guarantee take-home pay percentages?

The real answer is that you can’t. It is very dependent on personal issues such as your tax code, previous income and other income. Also, measuring take-home pay is one thing but there is often hidden higher rate tax to be paid via your Self Assessment Tax Return after the end of the tax year. You will also find that a large proportion of the sum that you don’t take home is taken in advisers fees with very little actually paid in tax.

HMRC compliant – surely that’s a good thing?

This may not be as impressive as it sounds. Compliant may mean as little as the fact that the company has registered a PAYE Scheme with HMRC, which is something that it must do to employ people in the UK. They have therefore complied with the basic rules of employing people. Not quite the same as the impression they are trying to portray – that HMRC have looked at, and are happy with the overall way that the company operates.

Guaranteed legal – can’t go wrong with that can you?

Businesses don’t normally state this – only if you are sailing so close to the wind do you think it’s necessary to state it. It may also just appear to be legal – until HMRC proves otherwise, that is.

Approved by leading tax counsel – surely you can trust the opinion of a QC?

Yes, of course you can. But was the QC given a full disclosure of all facts and what was the actual opinion? It is rarely as simple as ‘Yes, that works.’ And also very unlikely that it would be something that you could rely on in Court if you needed to.

So what do I do?

Be cautious and take professional advice from someone you can trust, like your accountant. Only proceed if you are absolutely sure about the scheme. If you get it wrong it’s you that pays the tax, and the interest, and the penalties.

John Mumford is the Accounting Director of Carrington Accountancy
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Image: Seems too good to be true by mattymatt