Contract working in uk or Europe - how to set up

My husband is looking into some contract roles paid on a per day basis in either the uk or holland.

Anyone any experience in this? Does he need to set up a company? Can he do that here or better to do it in country he goes to.

He has always worked here on a paye basis, and will have six months pay from 2011 tax year. The intention is for the short term I would stay here in our house with the kids and he would fly back at weekends.

Yes, I did it for about 15 years. The normal thing is to become an employee of the agency offering the work or of a payroll company they recommend. They then play with the figures so that the gross fee due to the contractor is equal to the combined employer/employee contributions for pension and social welfare plus the 'net salary' salary paid to the contractor. Depending on which country is involved the agency may also be able to organise it so that living expenses and flights home can come off the gross fee resulting in a tax saving.

When it comes to the tax situation I can't really comment as it depends on the individual situation. But again the agency will be able to provide such advice or recommend a tax advisor who can help.

One of the major advantages of going this way is that you don't loose out on the social security side of it, when working in another EU state. At the end of the contract the contractor will be made reduntant and will qualifiy in the normal way or unemployment benefits either in the country where he was employed or back home in Ireland.

Jim