Hi I'm new to contracting and am wondering is there an easy to use guide or something on what I need to do from a legal / financial / tax perspecitve. Would like to avoid paying an accountant for stuff I can do myself.How to pay myself? How much to pay myself. Any adivse information on tax returns anything at all that will help would be great!

I suggest contacting the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) as they are set up to assist contractors get through the minefield that is operating as a contractor.Suspect you'll find that going it alone is a false economy though. With the right advice you'll have greater take home pay and more importantly the likelihood of you falling foul of an HMRC inspection (and being inspected in the first place) will be far greater if you are going it alone.

Tracey,There is a contractors forum on this site where you could maybe get some good advice, I'm not sure this is the right forum.But, As a contractor, Assuming you are a ltd company - Get an accountant. Seriously ! A couple of hundered pounds a month is good value for the services they will provide for you, Such as.1. Quarterly VAT (Which has to be paid ontime)2. Annual Tax return3. If you are paying yourself too much etcDoing it yourself is a minefield and a tax audit waiting to happen !

Any accountants fees will be insignificant compared to the savings they enable and the hassle they reduce. Bear in mind as well that the fees are paid by your company, not from your pay/dividend income.It is possible you'll be able to use the flat rate VAT scheme, which makes VAT a doddle to handle so you might save something there.

As Wiseman says, have a look at PCG. There is a Guide to Freelancing available from the site - you can access that as a non-member though it doesn't provide as much info as the detailed guidelines which members have access to. Once you've had a look at that and seen all the various tax and statutory requirements you need to carry out, you'll have a much better idea of just how much of your own time it would take to keep on top of it. Then the cost of a decent accountant - and PCG membership - will start to look like a bargain!

I've been contracting 2 years now and would say an accountant is invaluable for all the reasons above - you don't want to be working at client sites and then coming home to deal with the (statutory) paperwork that goes with a limited company and associated fines for late filing/payment etc. Let your accountant do all that behind the scenes for you so you can enjoy your life more without the stress!Also as my accountant sold it to me, if you are on the flat rate VAT scheme, the difference between VAT invoiced to customer and VAT paid to HMRC pays for the accountant!

I suggest Certax based in Northampton, but do everything my e-mail.Should not cost you much moore than £100-120 a month and will save you a) no end of trouble, b) hard cash (they saved me£500 straight away), c) going to jail/big fine when you rely on outdated advice from non-experts.Seriously - whether you use Certax or not, don't try and scrimp on this.

Forgot to mention that the accountant's fees are tax deductible......but then again, your accountant would tell you that...(when you get one!)