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Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

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Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#121

Post by lmm »

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.

What makes you believe that charities spend money more effectively than governments? I would expect the opposite; the government at least has the press and voters trying to hold them to account, whereas charities have very little oversight.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#122

Post by 100timesthis »

walshemj wrote: post #115
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

Tangentially related: I'm a data scientist based in London, and I'm just thinking about becoming a contractor, but I don't see many position. I thought companies, because the strategic knowledge of the position, prefer to have those skills in house... do you think it's true?

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#123

Post by Keats »

dublinclontarf wrote: post #94
martinald wrote: post #82

Do not ever be a sole trader. It means you are personally liable for anything that goes wrong. Say you end up with a dreadful contract and everything goes wrong and the client sues. If you're a ltd company you can dissolve the business and pay them out of whatever assets your company has. If you're a sole trader you're liable for all the costs. Until you're personally bankrupt. Sure, there may be clauses in the contr…

This is what business indemnity insurance is for, get covered to a minimum of £50K. If you don't own a house and are brining in less than £70K PA it may or may not be worth registering a Limited company.

Lots of companies will not want to deal with you if you don't have a ltd though.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#124

Post by Keats »

I read that book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Contractors-Handbook-Expert-Guide-Fr... when I started contracting last year and thought it covered quite a bit.

Another thing I'd recommend is finding an accountant that uses FreeAgent or something similar rather than their homegrown system. Also, If you use an accountant they will do the company registration for you

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#125

Post by laverick »

Finding a good accountant isn't easy, but I would recommend looking for something better than Crunch. They were the default option "just pick Crunch", but I had to do a lot of tax research myself and recommend favorable approaches to their accountants on certain non-standard things. I also felt their first line of support is spread very thin and they put a lot of bookkeeping work on me. Then a lot of services cost extra each month, making their total pricing uncompetitive. In the end I got everything done and they did their best to rectify issues, but it was a big burden on my time and significant amounts of stress.

Maybe I would have had this issue with any accountants as a first time contractor, but I know it could have been better and I would have happily paid more to make it so. Do yourself a favor and pay extra to get an accountant that handles more things on your behalf (bookkeeping, VAT filing, etc) preferably with a simple non-proprietary interface.

I haven't tried these two services but if I go back to a UK accountant they'd be at the top of my list.

http://www.3wisebears.co.uk/ (contractor) http://www.proactive.uk.net (more startup focused, very helpful via phone)

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#126

Post by lucaspiller »

jackgavigan wrote: post #31
Nursie wrote: post #13

Why bother with a third party company registration service? You can do it yourself pretty easily through companies house. Do companiesmadesimple have any value-add? While I do share your cynicism about recruiters, I have also got most of my contracts through them. There are bad recruiters (vague job descriptions, never call you back) and there are good ones (We need someone here, you fit the bill, can we arrange a ti…

> Why bother with a third party company registration service? Well, note the affiliate link... Companies House charge £15 for setting up a company online. Most accountants include it in their service, and will let you use their address as your office/postal address if you want. It may be different for developers but if you avoid recruiters, you're probably ignoring about half the job market for contracting.

When I decided I wanted a Ltd I spend an afternoon reading through the regulations on HMRC and Contractor UK and still wasn't really sure what I needed to do. I went with Crunch and they setup everything for me in a couple of days (including flat-rate VAT and PAYE). If I were to do it again I probably would do it myself, but to start with I don't think it's really worth the effort of this is all new to you.

When I first started contracting I used an umbrella company for a few months, I'd recommend people starting out go this route then move to a Ltd once they are sure this is what they want to do.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#127

Post by darylteo »

new299 wrote: post #53
Nursie wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few more comments - Rate - Daily is good, hourly can also work. My current client will pre-authorise overpayment of a few hours a week if I work them. A little income boost if I want it. IR35 - The 'own equipment' thing is a guideline only, and I don't think you'll fall foul of IR35 for using their equipment, particularly as many places only allow their equipment to be used on their networks. There are other reason…

> Rate - Daily is good, hourly can also work. My current client will pre-authorise overpayment of a few hours a week if I work them. A little income boost if I want it. How do you manage your hours with a day rate? Is a work day 8 hours, or is it any day you worked for the company more than X hours? I've been trying to move to logging time and equating 1 day to 8 hours work. I find it fiddly to bill per day when perh…

> I find it fiddly to bill per day when perhaps I only needed to work 5 hours to complete one job and 3 on another day.

But you're also forgetting that this 3-5 hours has basically made you lose what could have been 4 hours at another client because they've taken up your time in your schedule. This is your per-job overheads.

Your utilisation is your client's problem, not yours. Don't let your rate be tied to your time, make it tied to your skills and your value to the business and force yourself to be worth that value.

Don't let yourself lose out in the name of "being competitive". Bill half the day if you have to leave early and consider it a half day off, but never bill hourly.

Source: just went from billing hourly to daily. I feel so much better now, especially when you realise people are willing to pay if you're worth it.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#129

Post by ForHackernews »

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.

Is the dev scene bad in the UK? Why are you so interested in moving to the US?
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