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The last days of Silicon Roundabout

newstatesman.com

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Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#141

Post by flooow »

aix1 wrote: post #138
flooow wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want a high salary with minimum fuss (i.e. no management, no clawing your way up a corporate ladder), this is way to do it. I've been contracting in London for 5 years. Rates are in the range of £500-£700 per day, never had a problem getting work, post-tax salary equivalent to £200k PAYE. You can often take several months off over the summer too, if you like that sort of thing.

Would you mind expanding on the maths of contracting @ £500-£700 per day working out as equivalent to £200k PAYE?

Sure. I just did a 12 month stint at £650/day. Assume 220 working days/year = £143K. Now you have a silly dance to minimise your tax.

- Pay yourself minimum wage (0pct rate) ~£9K/year. - You can probably write off around £10K against tax (lunch, transport) - Pay 19% corporation tax on the rest - Pay yourself a dividend up to upper rate, end up paying around 7.5% tax on that - ...probably some other tricks

Leads to a total tax rate of around 20-25% as long as you can survive on £50K a year. So net income something like £115K after tax. Say £9.5K/month, would require a gross salary of £194K [0].

This is why the government is trying to clamp down on IR35 abuse, but still plenty of contracts outside, at the moment.

[0] https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/lifestyle.php

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#142

Post by exolymph »

pertymcpert wrote: post #73
exolymph wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, in the UK you can be arrested for insulting someone on Twitter.

What do you think they're referring to by "right wing dystopia"? Do you think your reply was an effective counterpoint?

Restricting speech is a hallmark of authoritarianism. That is what I meant to imply.

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#143

Post by zimpenfish »

flooow wrote: post #141
aix1 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind expanding on the maths of contracting @ £500-£700 per day working out as equivalent to £200k PAYE?

Sure. I just did a 12 month stint at £650/day. Assume 220 working days/year = £143K. Now you have a silly dance to minimise your tax. - Pay yourself minimum wage (0pct rate) ~£9K/year. - You can probably write off around £10K against tax (lunch, transport) - Pay 19% corporation tax on the rest - Pay yourself a dividend up to upper rate, end up paying around 7.5% tax on that - ...probably some other tricks Leads to a…

> Now you have a silly dance to minimise your tax.

Although there is a risk here that HMRC will come after you at some future point when this has been ruled an invalid scheme. Personally I don't think it's worth it and don't tax dodge/minimise/optimise (also a moral stance.)

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#144

Post by trevyn »

jmkd wrote: post #43

I miss working from Google Campus and attending tech events in the surrounding streets. Not a day passed without meeting someone new and interesting, being inspired by the work of others as they describe it to you, even just checking out the student-like noticeboard of startups looking for co-founders for this or that idea. None of these have a compelling replacement online.

>checking out the student-like noticeboard of startups looking for co-founders

Where was this, exactly?

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#145

Post by GlennS »

tiew9Vii wrote: post #86
GlennS wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a really different experience. Sydney is full of jobs, and they're much higher paying than any I had in the UK. I never lived in London though.

What are you doing out of curiosity? I see lots of frontend React jobs, bunch of NodeJS jobs then lots of Python/Spark jobs. Full-time probably around $150-160k average or contracting $1k a day. Outside of that I see C# or Java using Spring Boot for I don't mind Java but the stuff out here I have done and used is so meh, Spring for everything when there's so much more than Spring. Java 17 was released last week and h…

I think this may be a matter of different expectations.

When I moved to Sydney 3 years ago and picked up a job within a week writing JavaScript at $130k + super (£80k then, £70k now the exchange rates have shifted a bit), I was very happy to be paid >2.5x what I'd been earning in the UK.

If you're already on $180k + super (£95k), then you're already extremely well paid almost anywhere outside the USA.

Regarding technologies: JavaScript/Python/C#/Java, well, you've just listed the most common programming languages that everyone uses everywhere? If you want to do Clojure or F# or something exotic then you probably want a Fintech.

I share your pain about Spring though. Life's too short for that nonsense.

> The more interesting work I have seen has always been overseas companies opening up in AU.

That is where I ended up. But now I'm a Django developer which I suspect isn't what you mean by interesting.

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#146

Post by dzonga »

tiew9Vii wrote: post #86
GlennS wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a really different experience. Sydney is full of jobs, and they're much higher paying than any I had in the UK. I never lived in London though.

What are you doing out of curiosity? I see lots of frontend React jobs, bunch of NodeJS jobs then lots of Python/Spark jobs. Full-time probably around $150-160k average or contracting $1k a day. Outside of that I see C# or Java using Spring Boot for I don't mind Java but the stuff out here I have done and used is so meh, Spring for everything when there's so much more than Spring. Java 17 was released last week and h…

for someone trying to get into the aussie tech scene ? where can I peruse some of these listings ?

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#147

Post by ta988 »

wdb wrote: post #105
thinkingemote wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only really in some compact cities like SF or Manhattan with good public transport that you don't need a car. Car clubs are useful for local trips. But SV and other towns and cities you'd need one. I'd say in Manhattan having a car is a liability!

My feeling was that it's difficult to travel outside those areas?

It may, however getting a driving license is really easy compared to most countries. And rentals are not to expensive (ok these days are a bit different due to agencies selling all their cars and being stuck not able to buy new ones now).

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#148

Post by ta988 »

tudorizer wrote: post #112
1_player wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If any UKites have made it to this thread, is be curious to hear why so few people leave for countries with a stronger and higher paying tech sector? If by "countries with higher paying tech sector" you mean the USA, with all due respect and without going into a huge discussion, I much prefer staying in UK, or the European continent in general. There is more to life, happiness, comfort, long-term goals and self-rea…

100% my thoughts too. US seems to have a lot of hidden costs , plus the value of the $ dropped quite a bit in recent times.

If you want to live in a big city yes cost can be high. But it can also be extremely low if you choose to live in less dense areas.

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#149

Post by ta988 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #50
michaelt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If any UKites have made it to this thread, is be curious to hear why so few people leave for countries with a stronger and higher paying tech sector? First of all, working in tech in the UK you can make $130,000 which is 3-4x the median annual salary. Very few Brits would describe that is "extremely low". That's enough money to have a few kids, a wife who doesn't work, and a pretty decent lifestyle. Why move a 10-h…

Can you supplement your post with some evidence? Because what I see on the market is all at the ~80k mark - 100k+ is an edge-case outside of FAANG. In comparison, in the US 150k+ seems common, and while you could argue costs of living and healthcare offset that, if you're purely betting on the short-term and are relatively young (so unlikely to need much healthcare) you can save up a ton of cash with that compared to…

Remember that depending on your immigration situation and amount you saved you may have to pay a pretty large exit tax in the US.

Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout

#150

Post by jmkd »

trevyn wrote: post #144
jmkd wrote: post #43

I miss working from Google Campus and attending tech events in the surrounding streets. Not a day passed without meeting someone new and interesting, being inspired by the work of others as they describe it to you, even just checking out the student-like noticeboard of startups looking for co-founders for this or that idea. None of these have a compelling replacement online.

>checking out the student-like noticeboard of startups looking for co-founders Where was this, exactly?

Sorry for slow response. Downstairs on the wall on the right just before the café.
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