UK Contractor with Limited Company
I know a guy on a much higher rate than me, about £500 per day, and he claims to pay around 18% tax which has me bewildered He will be showing expenses, which are deductible. Check with your accountant about expenses, which can be legally claimed as expenses. This is the main benefit of operating through a limited company. Legtimate business expenses can be claimed, which you cannot do if you are a permanent employee. Your friend might also be claiming false expenses, with a shady accountant. If HMRC does decide to give a call, he might have to pay n times the money he has saved till now. And my suggestion is always ask your accountant first. He(she) knows the legal stuff, so he(she) would give you the legally correct options. If you aren't comfortable with him(her), you can always change accountants. holiday pay, sick pay and job security You miss those that is why you are paid at a rate much higher than an employee.  benefit of a limited company  You can arrange your salary to pay no PAYE and take the rest as dividends. You willn't have to pay PAYE on that. Secondly if you have a partner(s), all of you can be paid dividends without paying PAYE(if you don't cross the threshold). "I know a guy on a much higher rate than me, about £500 per day, and he   claims to pay around 18% tax which has me bewildered Your acquaintance may be using a tax efficient, or ""marketed avoidance"" product identical or similar to those required to be registered or declared under DOTAS legislation in the UK. If this is the case then no, your accountant is not doing anything wrong - the 18% ""tax"" probably involves a radially different remuneration mechanism to the one you are using."
If you have self-employment income you can open a Solo 401k.  Your question is unclear as to what your employment status is.  If you are self-employed as an independent contractor, you can open a Solo 401k.  You can still do this even if you also earn non-self-employment income (i.e., you are an employee and receive a W-2).  However, the limits for contributions to a Solo 401k are based on your self-mployment income, not your total income, so if you have only a small amount of self-employment income, you won't be able to contribute much to the Solo 401k.  You may be able to reduce your taxes somewhat, but it's not like you can earn $1000 of self-employment income, open a Solo 401k, and dump $5000 into it; the limits don't work that way. "That's not the case where I'm located. Techs are hired ""temp to hire"" on contract. They are paid less than permanent employees. They aren't given any of the benefits of permanent employees. They are, just as the article says, treated like second class employees. Even third class at one company I worked for. And they are strung along with ""we just aren't hiring right now"" lines and told ""we'll extend your contract again and see if we are hiring at the end next time"".  I was laid off from a full time position because we were bought out by another company. I spent 7 months unemployed. I got a call for contract work and it only lasted two weeks. I was paid significantly less than my previous full time job and was not offered any kind of benefits at all. When that contract was up I was offered a contract at another company. Again, I was paid significantly less than I was making before and I was strung along by that company for two years before another contract offered me more money. With that contract I was finally getting paid what I was getting paid at my last permanent position, but again I did not receive the same benefits as a full time employee. That contract let me go after 18 months due to policy that they couldn't string contractors along. I was told that I could wait 6 months and be hired again, though! I then spent four months unemployed until I found my next contract which then hired me full time after 6 months. I've been full time for 2 years here now, but who knows how long that'll last. I've seen companies suddenly ""restructure"", which means they bring in H1Bs.  And I can't even blame this on me being a low level tech with no marketable skills. I've been in IT professionally for just a few months shy of 20 years. I've done everything from technical support, to security, to software QA, to system administration. I'm now in a job specializing in hardware. I have a resume that could be pages long with many different skill sets and roles. This is typical for nearly all of the contractors I know in this area. I run into people I know all the time floating from company to company around here. We're passed around like disposable commodities. But mention the word ""union"" and you'll get replaced with H1Bs. The tech industry is shitty that way." The UK doesn't have a gift tax. In limited circumstances if the giver is also in the UK and dies within 7 years, then some inheritance tax might be payable, but if you're in India that won't apply. India also appears not to have any gift tax if the giver is an uncle of the recipient, so no tax will be payable by either party here. There's also no tax deduction for gifts in either the UK or India, so if this is out of your income you'll probably already have paid tax on the money in some form. You will almost certainly be paying taxes in Czech Republic, short of being American of Eritrean, citizenship has little to no bearing on tax. If you are working from home, you will probably be a contractor. In Romania you would work through either an SRL or you would set up a PFA. Essentially a limited company or a sole trader. You will need to find the Czech equivalents. I would advise finding a small business accountant. They will be able to advise what is the most cost effective solution, in some countries (like my one) you can save considerable amounts of tax by working through a company. There is a link with some information. I'll give it a shot, even though you don't seem to be responding to my comment. SIPC insures against fraud or abuse of its members. If you purchased a stock through a SIPC member broker and it was held in trust by a SIPC member, you're covered by its protection. Where you purchased the stock - doesn't matter. There are however things SIPC doesn't cover. That said, SIPC members are SEC-registred brokers, i.e.: brokers operating in the USA. If you're buying on the UK stock exchange - you need to check that you're still operating through a US SIPC member. As I mentioned in the comment - the specific company that you mentioned has different entities for the US operations and the UK operations. Buying through them on LSE is likely to bind you with their UK entity that is not SIPC member. You'll have to check that directly with them. "Well, that's good and bad more regulation, but your not an agency your something better(IMHO) If the lawyer says yes, I'd scrub all mention of the word ""agency"". Being an ""employment business"" is part of your USP. You will presumable have to educate on why this is better, but you may as well use the protected words your entitled too and report any UK agencies calling themselves an employment business to try and undercut you.  Check with your branding/marketing advisors this could be key (Oh and please PM, your launch page/teaser when you get to it)" "It seems that you think you are freelancing, and they think you are an employee. What's bad for you, the tax office will also think you are an employee if they withhold tax for you. Alternatively, they think you are stupid, and they keep the money, but are actually not paying it to the tax office at all, in which case you will have a bad surprise when you do your tax returns.  First, I'd ask them for proof that they are indeed paying these taxes into some account related to you. I'd then ask a tax adviser for some serious advice. If they are acting out of incompetence and not out of malice, then you should be mostly fine, but your work there will count as employment.  Heaven knows why they treat you as an employee. Check your contract with them; whether it is between you and them or your company and them. It maybe that they never hired a contractor and believe that they have to pay employment tax. They don't. If your company sends them a bill, then they need to pay that bill, 100% of it, and that's it. Taxes are fully your business and your responsibility. As ""quid"" said, if they say they are withholding tax, then at the very least there must be a paystub that proves they have actually been paying these taxes. If they withhold taxes, and there is no paystub, then this looks like a criminal attempt to cheat you.  If they have actually paid taxes properly into your account, then they are merely creating a mess that can hopefully be fixed. But it is probably complicated enough that you need a tax advisor, even if you had none before, since instead of paying to your company, they paid some money to the company, and some to you personally." For this type of business a sole tradership would seem appropriate. You might then want to register as a limited company at a later date if you were growing significantly, taking on premises, seeking debt etc, as that would then shield you from liability.