Contracting & IR35

I put this in Money Matters but I realized it might be better suited here, not sure....

Is anyone on here a contractor, especially an IT contractor?  I have an opportunity to do some contract work for a consulting company which may only be a couple months and then a switch to permanently working for them or it may continue on for some time.  I've yet to talk to the main man at the company about it (will be in the next few days) but one of the other director's suggestion was 2 months on a contract and then perhaps go permie.

Anyway, I spoke to a highly recommended accountant today who advised me to go with an Umbrella contracting company before thinking about setting up my own limited liability company in case the contracting work really was only for 2 months (which could save me some big upfront costs and time).  After 2 months if I'm still contracting they can help me get set up with an LLC and get my accounting sorted out.

Anyway, I've read about IR35 and I know if you can be outside it it can be very lucrative, does anyone have an experience with this?

Thanks,
Matt

I'm a contractor (translation).  I simply registered with Inland Revenue as self-employed.

Jim

Jim,
What line of work are you in?  The thing about IT contractors is that they can be perceived by the taxman as simply filling a role similar to a permanent employee so they brought in this IR35 stuff.  Does IR35 affect you?  Apparently, if it does you take home a lot less pay perhaps in the form of many thousands of pounds per year.

Matt

Translator.  I work at home and never see my clients face to face. 

I have a lots of bookmarks to Inland Revenue information I've read, and I admit I never heard of IR35 before I read your post.  Also, Inland Revenue did not mention IR35 when I registered as self-employed.

But Inland Revenue literature does harp on the question of whether a person is really self-employed, and if you work in the customer's facility, it could obviously be a gray area.

Sorry you didn't get more responses to your question.

Jim