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ITS Plant-Tech v HMRC: a £569,175 VAT lesson for contractors
Not all umbrellas are equal. Two with no written contracts, with ‘their’ workers or their client, and which didn’t actually pay workers themselves, have cost a wind-tech…
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Daily news, comment and analysis for UK contractors: IR35, umbrellas, HMRC, the contract market. Ask a question about any of it.
Latest news
All news →Contractor loan demands: Is W28 playing litigation roulette?
Sean’s Story: He settled his contractor loans. Then they were sold for about £10. Now he’s being chased for £131,000
Contractors warned as HMRC petitions to wind up ‘FCSA umbrella’ MyPay
As JSL squeezes small umbrella companies, Healey must act
Healey’s Budget 2026 to-do list for IT contractor hiring
Contracting Awards 2026 winners: 2025’s victors refuse to let go
New guides
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Guide IR35
Foreign Office puts 90% inside IR35 amid £15m bill: 5 steps for you
Under HMRC scrutiny, the FCDO has put almost 90% of its contractors inside IR35, compared with a near even inside-outside split a year ago. Off-payroll working expert…
Guide Limited companies
Simple Assessment letters: How ex-Personal Service Companies are on HMRC’s radar
Whether IR35 played a part or not, former contractors who've wound up their personal service companies are on the receiving end of form PA302 — often due to savings,…
Guide Contracts & agencies
Napkin, anyone, for your next IT contract?
A music mogul's dinner-table deal and a contractor's quick email exchange have more in common than you'd think — both can be binding. Evane Alexandre, technology lawyer…
Guide Limited companies
Contractor limited company pension contributions: how to extract profit tax-efficiently?
‘Going direct’ by paying company profit into a pension can leave a limited company £2,430 better off because it comes ‘off the top.’ Dolan Accountancy's Lauren Sears…
Guide Limited companies
The weird, the wonderful and the genuinely useful: what contractors get wrong about expenses
A Speedo. Lingerie. A camel ride?! Somewhere in an accountant's filing system is proof that contractors will try to expense almost anything, and the stories are funnier…
Guide Umbrella companies
Right to Work changes from October 2026: a contractor’s explainer
How the UK contractor sector is set to be shaken up by RTW expanding to alternative work arrangements, including checks every time you jump umbrella, agency checks not…
Contractors' Questions
Real questions from readers, each answered by a specialist: accountants, recruiters and other industry advisers.
- Where should I put my £20k savings?
- Is my umbrella company fobbing me off on expenses?
- How to use Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) as a limited company with £300,000?
- Can I file dormant accounts or are my transactions ‘significant’ in Companies House’s eyes?
- Is it legal to 10-day backdate an invoice so it’s payable immediately?
- With an end-user not paying travel costs, is it more tax-efficient to claim via self-assessment or have the PSC pay?
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Senior Backend Engineer (TypeScript / Node, serverless AWS)
Front Seed Labs Ltd Verified Verified direct employer This role was posted and paid for by the company hiring, and hand-reviewed by us before it went live. No agencies in between. Promote your role with us → Remote (UK)
You'll build and run backend services in TypeScript on Node, serverless on AWS: Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB and event streams. Some services are yours from the start; others you take over from the engineers who built…
£600 – £650/day
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Business Analyst - Commodities, Platform, Process
City of London, London
Project Associate/Business Analyst - Commodities, Platform, Process A leading global organisation operating within complex physical market and trading environments is seeking a Business Analyst to join its…
£550 – £650/day
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Field Solutions Specialist – EMEA Location: Remote – EMEA Contract: 12 months, with the potential to extend. Outside IR35 Start Date: ASAP Travel: Approximately 25–50% Engagement: Outside IR35, subject to confirmation…
Senior Platform Engineer
Cambridge
Contract Platform Engineer | AWS / Terraform / GitLab CI | £700–£790 per day Cambridge Hybrid (Non-Negotiable) I'm working on a contract opportunity for a hands-on Platform Engineer to help improve and automate a…
£700 – £790/day
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