Hi all As an ex employee of The Guild, and now with a competitor, allow me to explain. Recruitment agencies are not allowed to pay C.I.S directly as it breaches HMRC's IR35 rules on employment. So the agencies have a choice, pay you as an employee and have additional costs of holiday pay and employees national insurance, or save that cost and use a "3rd party" The Guild are a contractor who assist agencies by placing you on their books as one of their self employed contractors, and therefore subcontract you to the agency. The scheme works as the agency can either pay you more to go C.I.S, charge the client less for you, or keep the margin to themselves. You get to keep your C.I.S status, and do your end of year return as usual, but as it's agency work, have to pay The Guild a fee for the privelage. The Guild charge £10 if your Gross pay is £299.99 or less, and they charge £18 if you earn £300 or more. This is taken off before you are taxed and so actually in true terms costs a little less. After tax they then take a £3 fee for your public and employers liability as well as your accident insurance, health and safety assistance and text messaging service. I hope that helps many of you, I have moved to a different company who in all honesty are more competitively priced than The Guild but won't advertise on this site. Feel free to contact me if you do want to know more.