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IR35 and umbrella payroll. Made simple.

Status determination support, umbrella payroll processing, and limited-company payroll. For contractors and the businesses that engage them.
Since the 2017 public-sector and 2021 private-sector IR35 reforms, responsibility for determining a contractor's employment status sits with the business engaging them. That has left many UK companies running PAYE for workers they used to pay as self-employed, and many contractors needing umbrella arrangements. We work both sides of the brief.
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WHAT IS INCLUDED

The full IR35 and umbrella service.

Four areas, sometimes used together on a single engagement, sometimes separately.
IR35 status determination support: SDS workflow, CEST assessments, reasonable-care evidencing
Umbrella payroll support: PAYE processing and compliance for inside-IR35 contractors working through an umbrella arrangement, including transparent margin disclosure, holiday pay accrual checks and RTI filing
PSC and limited-company payroll: director's salary, dividends recorded, P11D where applicable
HMRC correspondence on IR35 matters: status enquiries, determination disputes, compliance checks
Coordination with Lexarox Legal on borderline status questions and contract clauses
And other off-payroll matters on request
WHO THIS IS FOR

Both sides of off-payroll.

Businesses engaging contractors

  • Medium and large UK companies (above the small-company exemption) who carry the IR35 determination obligation
  • Public sector bodies of any size, who carry the determination obligation under all engagements
  • Businesses moving previously self-employed workers onto PAYE or umbrella for compliance
  • HR teams needing a defensible status determination process and clean SDS workflow

Contractors and off-payroll workers

  • Limited-company contractors needing compliant payroll on the contractor side
  • Contractors moving from PSC to umbrella for an inside-IR35 engagement
  • Umbrella workers wanting a transparent fixed-fee umbrella running their pay
  • Specialist contractors in IT, engineering, finance, construction (CIS) and professional services
HOW IT WORKS

Our process

Free conversation
Tell us where you sit. End client or contractor, inside or outside IR35, current or new engagement. We will tell you the right structure and what we can do directly.
Written scope and fixed quote
Whether the engagement is umbrella running, PSC processing, SDS workflow setup, or an HMRC enquiry response, we agree the work and the fee in writing first.
Action
We process the umbrella or PSC payroll cycle, structure the SDS process, draft correspondence, and coordinate with Lexarox Legal where the matter needs a legal hand. The umbrella or the end client then takes care of paying the contractor based on the figures we have prepared.
Ongoing or one-off
Some IR35 matters are one-off (a single enquiry, a single SDS review). Others (an umbrella running monthly) are ongoing. We support both.
COMMON QUESTIONS

FAQs

Your company is small if it meets two of: turnover £10.2m or less, balance sheet £5.1m or less, 50 employees or fewer. If you are small, the contractor's PSC makes the IR35 determination, not you. If you are above the threshold, you carry the determination.

One that runs straightforward PAYE on the assignment rate, deducts the standard employment costs (employer NI, holiday pay, pension), discloses its margin transparently, and does not offer take-home figures higher than equivalent PAYE.

Yes. HMRC's standing position is that any umbrella offering meaningfully higher take-home than a standard PAYE calculation is doing something HMRC will eventually come after, often retrospectively. The risk usually lands on the contractor, not the scheme.

A fair umbrella margin is a fixed weekly or monthly fee, typically in the £15 to £30 per week range, disclosed before you sign. Percentage-based margins or models that promise unusually high take-home are warning signs.
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YOU MIGHT ALSO NEED

Related services.

Business payroll
for moving previously self-employed workers onto PAYE
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CIS payroll
for construction-side off-payroll arrangements
Learn More
Lexarox legal
for borderline status questions and engagement contracts
Learn More