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Do you think in the current climate it would be doable to start freelancing / consulting? I've already got an LTD setup because I used to be a contractor, but would like to look at turnkey work, where I'm given a project for a fixed price.
These are uncertain times. A lot of contractors have moved back to permie and competition is high.
You can try to obtain a 6 or 12 month contract if you have a decent stack of emergency cash (e.g. £25k) lying around.
I wouldn't overanalyze it. Try to see your options out there.
If you can get 3 contract offers in 1 month, then obviously you're still fine. If you can get 1 contract offer after trying for 3 months, I'd consider not taking it.
Analyze and feel the market, so you can form your opinion instead of just going based on stories that other people produce. Some people can't find a low-paying job in the best of times. Some people will have plenty of opportunities in the worst of times.
So there will be more competition for less bread. But you can try.
Contract work has been under attack by IR35, fortunately this has been postponed by a year. These are uncertain times. A lot of contractors have moved back to permie and competition is high. You can try to obtain a 6 or 12 month contract if you have a decent stack of emergency cash (e.g. £25k) lying around. I wouldn't overanalyze it. Try to see your options out there. If you can get 3 contract offers in 1 month, then…
As ever, with contracting you're always taking on some risk when you come to the end of a contract. Much of your ability to get a contract will depend on your network (as well as skills and experience).
A lot of it depends on whether OP is looking to do full time contracting and leave their current job or just fill the 20% of their time they have now. But either way, the best idea is to go and look for the work and see what's around.
Contract work has been under attack by IR35, fortunately this has been postponed by a year. These are uncertain times. A lot of contractors have moved back to permie and competition is high. You can try to obtain a 6 or 12 month contract if you have a decent stack of emergency cash (e.g. £25k) lying around. I wouldn't overanalyze it. Try to see your options out there. If you can get 3 contract offers in 1 month, then…
Now, I don't know about Freelancing in terms of big businesses and what view their legal departments take, but UK small business doesn't give 2 hoots about IR35.
I read with some amusement a couple of years ago in Private Eye that their freedom of information request to know how many people had been investigated and prosecuted for failure to declare IR35 status had been refused on the grounds that "the answer would undermine the rule of law" (more or less - my memory isn't perfect).
From my experience in the last 2 months, companies are scaling back their IT projects now. Got several contracts that were supposed to start later this year and they were canceled. So there will be more competition for less bread. But you can try.
Contract work has been under attack by IR35, fortunately this has been postponed by a year. These are uncertain times. A lot of contractors have moved back to permie and competition is high. You can try to obtain a 6 or 12 month contract if you have a decent stack of emergency cash (e.g. £25k) lying around. I wouldn't overanalyze it. Try to see your options out there. If you can get 3 contract offers in 1 month, then…
IR35 may be less of a thing now anyway. It's purpose (for those not in the know) is to stop people being taxed as companies while working as, effectively, employees. There are no hard and fast tests for this, exactly, but a number of smaller tests which taken together would paint a picture. One of these tests is "Where do you work" another is "Whose equipment do you use" and another is "Can you substitute someone in…
The reason this change is not welcome by the contractors is that many end clients -- primarily large banks and similar corporations -- do not want to bother checking each individual contract; instead they tend to make blanket decisions and declare all external contracts as inside IR35. And being inside IR35 is the worst of both worlds: you get taxed as if you're a full employee, but you're still not entitled to full employee's benefits like paid sick days or holidays.
Uhm, you want to check the fine prints. If you've been furloughed, which is typically what people on "80%" are, then the Treasury is paying your salary, but you're NOT supposed to work AT ALL. If you are actually working, you and your company are effectively committing benefit fraud.
> Do you think in the current climate it would be doable to start freelancing
Everything is doable with enough grit and enough resources; IR35 is a big concern though, because it has cut demand significantly by scaring companies away from contractors - even if the postponed changes are postponed again next April, HMRC will keep the finger on the trigger.
This said, this is probably not the right time to sell in general; it's the right time to buy / invest / build while prices are rock-bottom.
> would like to look at turnkey work
That's not a great move at the best of times, unless that "turnkey" is highly automated (in which case it's likely to go away soon as somebody starts selling the fully-automated version). Fixed-price is a recipe for getting screwed.
> we are being put at 80% pay / 80% time. Uhm, you want to check the fine prints. If you've been furloughed , which is typically what people on "80%" are, then the Treasury is paying your salary, but you're NOT supposed to work AT ALL. If you are actually working, you and your company are effectively committing benefit fraud. > Do you think in the current climate it would be doable to start freelancing Everything is…
The 80% rate of the furlough scheme does seem to have prompted a lot of companies to think this is a suitable rate for a hard times haircut to give thier staff generally though, even they are still working 100%.