In the last two years HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have seen a growth in arrangements which are variously described as ‘Travel and Subsistence Schemes’ or ‘Mobile Worker Schemes’. These schemes are operated by many businesses involved in the supply of temporary workers to end users: Employment Businesses and umbrella companies.

A blacklist of public sector IT contractors should be drawn up to identify those whose past pledges of value for money were just spin, a Labour MP is urging.

Borrowers face a mortgage affordability test from lenders amid plans by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to step up the regulation of home loans.

As a Contractor, you may not have replaced your lost ‘death in service’ benefits that you used to benefit from as a ‘permi’. But when you become a parent the safety net that this cover provides becomes vital to protect your children if the worst should happen.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have been exasperated for many years by the way the construction industry behave as if the rules on paying workers gross don’t apply to them.

The new legislation that penalises managed service companies–companies that are run for contractors by providers–has sent a powerful message throughout the industry. There is real concern on the part of agencies and recruiters about the status of the contractors they work with. Are you running your own limited company, or is someone else running it for you? In the latter case, you may have trouble getting more work.

The Treasury have now produced their consultative document promised in the last budget on what they like to call ‘False Self Employment’ in the Construction Industry.

It is clearly an attempt to extract more money out of the industry. They have estimated that of the 860,000 self employed subcontractors in the UK 300,000 have been wrongly described as self employed and if these workers were re-classified as employees the Treasury would benefit to the sum of £350 million per year.

Eastern Europe shows strong potential for temporary workers, according to new research from Eurociett and Interconnection Consulting.

Focusing on Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the report shows that most significant opportunities lie in countries where the sector is best established and that have a sound regulatory framework in place – particularly Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Since ‘A-day’ in 2006, the pension’s simplification rules have allowed Contractors to dramatically reduce their tax bills by contributing a large proportion of their income into a pension scheme. In fact, the only barrier to cap your contributions was the lifetime allowance of £1.75 million and the annual allowance of £245,000 (for 2009/10) and aside from this, it was left to the individual to decide how much to contribute from your annual income.