In response to your article ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ (recruiter.co.uk, Expert Advice, 19 August), a dispensation is not the silver bullet as made out in this article.

Nor is a dispensation a licence to blindly operate travel and subsistence allowances up to maximu m values. Dispensations are granted by HMRC for the sole purpose of reducing the volume of paperwork (in the form of individual P11Ds).

As pointed out in other forums, HMRC has frequently issued dispensations without due regard for the financial implications to all parties and with no consideration of the marketing value to the recipient umbrella company.

I have seen many examples of umbrella companies creatively interpreting dispensations, and deliberately misrepresenting these documents to achieve a marketing advantage.

I would also challenge the objection to non-UK registered companies. There is absolutely no reason to assume that a business registered outside of the UK does not offer an entirely legal, legitimate, compliant and HMRC-acknowledged scheme.

Jason Medcalf