day-rate

The rate quoted to an umbrella is not your gross pay. Employer National Insurance at 15%, the apprenticeship levy and the umbrella's margin all come out before your own tax.

A £400 day rate is not £104,000 a year. At a realistic 220 billable days it is £88,000, and that is before employment costs.

Compare on net, not headline. A permanent package includes holiday, pension, sick pay and employer National Insurance that a day rate has to fund itself.

Outside IR35 you take a small salary plus dividends, paying corporation tax at 19% to 25% first, then dividend tax on what you draw.