I live in the UK, work in the IT industry, and have recently started working as a 'contractor' in my own right for the first time.
Over the last few years, I have had a few 'fixed term contracts' with different companies, but in each of these cases, I have become an employee of that company, whether it has meant working directly for them, or for one of their clients at the client's site. With the job that I have recently started, I am now legally speaking 'self-employed', and will invoice the company for whom I am doing the work for 'services rendered' at the end of each month, rather than being paid a salary.
I understand that this has implications on a few aspects of my life, such as the fact that I will now have to pay my tax and NI contributions myself, rather than having them automatically deducted from my pay through PAYE. Are there any other things that I should be aware of/ will need to take into consideration with respect to how I am paid?
When previously working for a consultancy firm at one of their clients' sites, I was part of a team that included a number of people who were 'contractors', and they had mentioned that they incorporated themselves- this is now something that I am considering, since I am now technically 'self-employed'.
As I understand, incorporating yourself can be advantageous in terms of protecting your personal assets from any liability, as well as having tax benefits... But I have no idea about whether it is worth doing, or how to go about it if so.
What are the pro's and con's of incorporating yourself? Are there particular circumstances where it would definitely be best to do so/ not to do so? How can I decide whether it is right for me?