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Originally Posted by heero_yuy
Good news! Thanks for the link Hugh. 
---------- Post added at 13:24 ---------- Previous post was at 13:08 ----------
And the not so wealthy. In my sector many one-man-bands like myself run our affairs this way and not just for tax purposes. As a limited company clients, suppliers etc can only sue the company, not myself personally, so long as I have acted in good faith and professionally. Only company assets can be siezed in pursuit of defaulted debt payments.
It is also the case that many larger companies that come to the independant sector prefer to work with a properly constituted limited company that is also VAT registered. I take care of payroll, VAT, dividends, liability insurance and sending out quotes, whilst the client just deals with specifications, contracts / purchase orders and final payment.
There is one other aspect where HMRC really needs to tighten up is where somebody, like a footballer, is only really employed by one employer (The club) and is likely to be in contravention of IR35. They seem to wangle a way round this. |
That goes without saying of course, they're probably the majority. However, plenty of wealthy and high profile people do it simply as an easy way to avoid large amounts of tax. Think of some of our best known personalities and put their names into the Companies House website then see how many turn up their as directors with partners as secretaries etc. It's certainly not illegal but it is being done in many cases primarily for tax avoidance IMHO and I dare say a lot of major organisations also benefit from engaging their services by that means too - i.e. by not actually being their employer with all that entails.