Crystal Umbrella

It was good news for Contractors and Umbrellas following on from the Chancellor’s Pre Budget Report this week, with the decision not to change the current rules regarding Tax relief for travel expenses.

“Following the consultation Tax relief for travel expenses: temporary workers and overarching employment contracts, the Government has decided to leave the current rules unchanged. However, in the light of evidence from the consultation confirming poor levels of compliance in this area HMRC will refocus its efforts to ensure that the current regime is properly applied. If compliance does not improve, the Government may return to this at a later date.”

In a move that will be welcomed from an industry wide perspective, it is not one that carries good news for all, with the report outlining that there will be heavy monitoring of compliance within the industry. It could therefore spell the end for several players in the market.

Colin Howell, joint Director of Crystal Umbrella and on the Board of Directors at the AEMC, stated that this move could finally level out the playing field across the Umbrella Industry, to ensure that compliance is upheld. “The fact that the Government will be monitoring the compliancy of the industry will help to ensure that the level of inappropriate activity is diminished, and a comprehensive set of standards is upheld.”

Another issue that will certainly affect the Industry is that the Government plan to act in 2009 in regards to Income Shifting.

“The government firmly believes it is unfair that some individuals can arrange their affairs to gain a tax advantage by shifting part of their income to another person who is subject to a lower rate of tax. The government considered the responses received to the recent consultation and believes that a further period of consultation will ensure that the legislation in this area provides clarity and certainty for businesses and their advisers. The government now intends to introduce legislation through Finance Bill 2009 and will not enact the planned legislation changes effective from 6 April 2008.”

Therefore, it is a case of watch this space in regards to Income Shifting, but for now, Contractors and Agencies alike, can continue to operate with secure and trusted payment solution providers, such as Crystal Umbrella, and ensure that they are operating legally and without risk.

The latest new and exciting initiative has been launched through the Crystal Umbrella website. Visitors can now view interactive video tiles expertly explaining their way through the site.  Content includes who we are, what we do and how we operate. The use of video tiles in the website is a realistic and practical way of giving a visual guide to the often difficult to understand industry that we operate.

Yet again, one of our front line Contractor Personal Assistants has scooped our internal customer services award, GEM. Congratulations must go to Sarah Warren for demonstrating a positive attitude to both her external and internal clients. Nominations came from all over the company and her ‘can do’ attitude was a huge factor in her success. Extra workloads and added projects are often difficult to manage and carry out, however Sarah excelled in ensuring that they were completed, with a positive pro-active approach that makes her a pleasure to work with.

Congratulations and well done Sarah.

Special Commissioners decided that Mr Bessell was under the control of the end client and become integrated within a team. They ruled that tax and penalties of £99,000 was payable.

When assessing contracts any “fettered” clauses can and will result in HMRC’s favour. Caution must be taken to ensure that clauses are clearly defined in relation to obligation and control.

Crystal Umbrella would like to extend our gratitude for all those who took the time to complete our online customer survey. We were delighted with the responses and we are collectively acting upon the results to further enhance our service offerings.

Upon the survey closure, an independent adjudicator randomly selected one person from those who chose to enter the competition to win a Nintendo Wii. Congratulations must go to the lucky winner – Stuart Goode.

Crystal Umbrella welcomes any attempt to ensure compliancy throughout the umbrella and agency market place and that following on from the AEMC’s initial meeting with HMRC and Treasury we fully expect to be able to assist with the consultation process either as Crystal or as board members of the AEMC.

This new consultation comes at a time when there is some uncertainty within the agency sector following the announcements in May concerning the extension of rights to agency workers. Umbrella companies offer agencies a significant advantage provided that they are operated compliantly. It would seem that the Government expects the non compliant activities of some umbrellas to continue to affect the market – hence the need to further regulate.

However we will be reviewing the latest proposals over the next few days and will continue to provide updates in relation to this consultation. We will keep this news section updated or follow the progress on the AEMC website.

This is only consultation and not proposed legislation.

Crystal Umbrella is proud and delighted to announce their full admission to the Association of Employment Management Companies (AEMC). Crystal Umbrella becomes the third independent company to be given the full AEMC stamp of approval and this announcement reinforces the seriousness of the objectives that the AEMC are putting into place within the industry.

Like every other member of the AEMC, Crystal Umbrella went through the strictest of independent legal and accountancy audits in accordance with the AEMC code of conduct, rules and regulations to ensure that they met the high level standards that are needed to be part of a trade body.  The key aims of the AEMC are to play a vital role providing a united voice with lobbying powers to HMRC and government and a comprehensive set of standards for the Umbrella industry; removing the risk of non-compliance to both Agencies and Contractors alike.

The crystal clear solutions offered by Crystal Umbrella have always been built on the foundations of promoting and encouraging compliancy, security and transparency within the payment solutions market; key factors associated with the AEMC. Both Crystal Umbrella and the AEMC share founding principles including integrity; compliance; competence; equality and awareness

In order to continue to offer superior customer service, we have recently acquired the new live chat web based tool, allowing web visitors to contact our expert new business advisors at any point during the working day via an instant messaging based service.

Live Chat allows the user to speak to a representative instantaneously (providing they are online) and offers the user the flexibility that simply cannot be obtained from telephone and email correspondence.

Priding ourselves on professionalism throughout all aspects of our business has seen the recent launch of a new internal initiative for the staff here at Crystal Umbrella.

With the mission to provide efficient and beneficial crystal clear payment solutions for contracts through excellent customer service and first class customer products, the GEM programme has been commenced with the aim to ensure that members of the Crystal Umbrella team Go the Extra Mile not only for external customers but also internal ones.

This initiative runs throughout the year with a quarterly winner presented with a GEM award. It helps to promote first class customer service and also supports a cohesive and unified workforce, ensuring that the common goals and objectives of Crystal Umbrella are upheld to the highest possible standards.

We were proud to announce the first winner of GEM as Lynsey Jones – Projects and Process Specialist, who, for her outstanding contribution towards the design and implementation of the new internal business system, deservedly takes home the first award.

Congratulations Lynsey and well done.