Umbrella have closed down and no longer exist. But there are other "similar" options available.

I had to stop using the umbrella this month. Read a little on Contractor UK (link above in prev thread) and contacted one of their top5 recommended, Parasol

as they specialise in security. They stated to give me more take home than on the good umbrella previously and stated i will be exempt from IR35 and everything else. Bonus!

OK so are parasol just acting as the middle man between you and the company you signed a contract with. In my simple mind

I sign a contract with XYZ at £375daily
I pay say parasol at £60 ish a month (assuming I'm paid monthly)
They give me a 'salary' every month having taken care of expenses/tax/ni etc

Is that it ? I thought that was an umbrella or it would seem that it acts umbrella ish !!

Update, because of the new legislation many companies are struggling to cope with and in fact the likes of Giant, Parasol and Brookson cannot even legally exist as a 'Managed Service Company' (MSC) anymore so they are repositioning as 'accountants'

I mentioned I was with Brookson they have not coped at all well with the budget changes, in fact its fair to say the service has completely gone down the toilet. Ive been paid for about 4 weeks out of the last 8, not had remittance advices sent through, theyve been late invoicing my agency, it just goes on. My contract ends next week and I will be using my own ltd company. To be honest all one of these so called MSCs do is setup a limited company for you so you might as well do it yourself and buy Sage Instant Payroll for £99 and your away (or use a payroll bureau).

Gary

That's about right yes. Tell them the hours worked, expenses, then i get the money in the account.

For £65 (£48 after tax) a month, everything is done and i seem to be getting the max net amount i can.

I cant believe it but I am going to turn down £2k a week, would mean 12+hrs a day including travelling and I think I would struggle with doing a week let alone 6 months (I currently do about 33hrs a week at my own discretion leaving mid afternoon most of the summer months). I live near (be the word meaning I need to get to the railway station) Witney in Oxon and would mean commuting 5 days a week to south London which wouldn't be nice. If it were closer or I lived in London I would have jumped. I must be mad.

Thats the reality of contracting. I spent all of last year working in Gloucester and Warrington for British Nuclear Group doing lots of miles, living away from my family during the week, 5.30am starts to get to where I needed to on time. You can't have it all I'm afraid.

BTW I know Witney very well because I used to pass it on the A40 everyday and bought my WR1 from Simon @ Costwold Subaru in witney (although after 6 months I was bored with it and sold it).

Gary