Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK • Hacker News Board

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#111

Post by zimpenfish » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 9:09 PM UTC

kybernetyk wrote: post #77

zimpenfish wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a moral/ethical stance, I guess - tax funds social infrastructure and I think we need more of that. Good point about the shady "base pay + loan you never* have to repay" shenanigans - I suspect HMRC will be onto them soon enough though.

>It's a moral/ethical stance, I guess - tax funds social infrastructure and I think we need more of that. Then donate that "optimized" tax money to a charity where it does more good than being pumped in some governmental megaproject that burns most of its funding just on overhead.

It's a nice idea but I'm not sure it would make much difference either way (although I do give money to charity anyway.)

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#112

Post by boothead » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 9:28 PM UTC

estefan wrote: post #64

boothead wrote: post #3

Good advice, especially the bit about crunch. First time I contracted I let my accountant talk me into using their horrible spreadsheet. I couldn't make my self use it it was that bad and my accounts were a mess. Now my accountant (nimble jack) bundles freeagent (which when I looked into it was better than crunch and has an API) and keeping on top of things is much easier. One additional thing: If you're married make…

If you split up, your spouse will take half the money in your business account with them if it's 50-50...

If we ever split up, I'd give her at least half of my money to look after my children :-)

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#113

Post by a3camero » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 9:43 PM UTC

kifler wrote: post #2

This looks incredibly helpful - I wish someone would do one for the US/Canada

Becoming a Contract Programmer in Canada: http://www.cameronhuff.com/blog/becoming-a-contract-programm....

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#114

Post by bitwize » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 9:54 PM UTC

stefek99 wrote: post #98

ForHackernews wrote: post #71

I've heard that in the UK, it's much more advantageous to work as a contractor than a full-time employee. Is there any truth to that? What advice would HN offer to a US-based developer looking to move to the UK?

I'm in the UK for 4.5 years and one of my biggest dreams is move to the US... Main advantage of being contractor? Much better pay... They say - "no job security" - but there is no such term anyway.

Why would you ever want to move here?

You think the NHS is bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#115

Post by walshemj » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

M8 wrote: post #59

The salary ceiling is very low in UK.

Not for contractors its way higher than permie's pay I have seen year long contracts for data science going at 700/800 per day.

An average day rate for London is £450-500 and that is well north of 100k pa

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#116

Post by randomname2 » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 10:28 PM UTC

Peroni wrote: post #62

M8 wrote: post #59

The salary ceiling is very low in UK.

Almost every salary ceiling is low compared to SV but it's all relative. It's not particularly difficult to achieve a £100k+ salary in London and you can have a very comfortable lifestyle on a six figure income.

Just out of interest, how?

For a developer, £100k+ as a contractor is not particularly difficult, but as an employee this would be rare, no?

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#117

Post by WoMaameTwe » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 10:51 PM UTC

Another one for the clueless bandwagons to hop on as the new sexy. This type of content on HN is getting tiring and played out. Please desist from mounting this type of bullshit on HN its misleading.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#118

Post by thruflo » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 11:16 PM UTC

Tax.

You invoice £4k. It gets paid into your bank. Congratulations. You just earned £3k.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#119

Post by Nursie » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 11:17 PM UTC

framp wrote: post #107

Nursie wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> It's not a legal requirement I'd be surprised if it wasn't a requirement with many clients though, it shows a level of professionalism. >> and they're certainly not free AFAIK. You haven't looked very hard then...

> I'd be surprised if it wasn't a requirement with many clients though, it shows a level of professionalism. Agree, but I've never seen such clause in a contract. > You haven't looked very hard then... I guess it's a service provided by only certain accountants? All the (chartered) accountants I've talked to never offered a free business account. They offered introduction to paid business account but that's the usual…

Ok so the the two things I know of are that HSBC will give you a free intro year or two (but that's obviously only useful for a year or so) and that most contractor-specialising accountants have some sort of promotion/deal on with Cater-Allen to get you free business banking at their private bank.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#120

Post by Nursie » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 11:17 PM UTC

Peroni wrote: post #63

Nursie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your platform? The payments thing is important, and sometimes recruiters provide a useful buffer too - the end-client company might take their sweet time to pay, or be unreliable. Contracting through a third party provides you with a buffer and I know for a fact that I've been paid well ahead of the recruiter being paid on several occasions.

Knowing Hung, he'll be too humble to mention his platform directly so I'll do it on his behalf: http://workshape.io It's a brilliant platform & I've hired a few great people on there.

Thanks, I'll take a look around...