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Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

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Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#131

Post by blater »

codeshaman wrote: post #82

Great article, very thoughtful. But my biggest question is where do you find a client ? Is there a website (like a jobs website) for contract work, besides elance and the like ? Yeah, I can google it, but it's usually just a waste of time. Is there any serious place where an experienced developer can meet serious clients ? I mean clients willing to pay for quality work so I can make a living similar to a corporate jo…

Meeting clients is more about freelancing, and some of the meetup groups are useful for networking there. For contracting I'd say the majority of people use jobserve. They advertise fixed term mostly fulltime contracts, usually 3-6months initial contract, and usually with at least 1 or 2 renewals expected if your work is ok.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#133

Post by medwezys »

jakub_g wrote: post #129
scalesolved wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ten weeks holiday and still earning over 100k contracting a year at £500 a day. Obviously not everyone has a contract all the time but from my friends that do contract they almost always are working (and they are outside the market hungry center that is London)

Speaking about holidays, what's the employers' attitude towards days off say on a 3 or 6 months contract? Can you take a week or two off during a 3 month contract or you are generally expected to work the full contract time?

Clients can't prevent you from taking time off, you have a complete freedom to choose how much you work in theory. Having said that taking a week or more off during a 3 month contract will no be expected by most of the clients. Taking a day or two off is usually not a problem. It really depends on the client.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#134

Post by dogma1138 »

drdaeman wrote: post #126
yetanotheracc wrote: post #30

What are the benefits of incorporating an Ltd vs being a sole trader?

This depends on a country (sure, I understand the original post is about UK) Say, in Russia one'd generally would want to go sole trader route and not an Ltd one. Less initial paperwork, a bit more relaxed tax/accounting rules (with same rates), and significantly simpler to put earned money into your wallet.

You can go the "Self Employed" route in the UK just easily, it's a simple online registration and you get a VAT number and a tax code, but you really don't want to do that.

If you are self employed there is no liability protection that separates you from the business this means that for the business to go bankrupt you have to also go bankrupt, and worse creditors can go after your own and familial assets to clear debt that was incurred by your business.

Now in some rare cases when there was gross and often criminal misconduct the liability protection can be lifted on a business which means it's stakeholders can be found liable for damage but that's quite rare.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#135

Post by DrJokepu »

hanoz wrote: post #86

Contrary to the advice, you do not need an accountant, especially if you are able to ignore another part of the advice and not register for VAT (if your turnover is below the registration threshold of £82,000) which simplifies the accounting greatly. Your duties are then mainly as follows: Use HMRC PAYE Tools to report each salary payment you make, and pay any National Insurance if applicable (which it won't be if yo…

Even VAT is fairly straightforward if you sign up for the VAT Flat Rate Scheme (assuming you're eligible). You'd probably need to pay for something like FreeAgent to help you with your VAT filings, but amount of money the Flat Rate Scheme would save you would easily pay for the cost of the bookkeeping application.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#136

Post by marrs »

levosmetalo wrote: post #110
marrs wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen more than 1 month notice in a standard contract. Everyone I know who has had more than that negotiated it for themselves.

At my current company in Germany, notice period is 3 months from the end of the quarter. That effectively means it's 3 to 6 months, depending on the day you quit. It might be on the longer side, but it's not unusual for Germany for full time professional position. On the other hand, it works both ways, so it's not that bad as it sounds at first.

Should have mentioned I was referring to the UK

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#137

Post by lhorie »

ravibhatt wrote: post #57

Adding my two cents. I have been a contractor for almost 3 years now. My personal opinion: - Contracting pays a lot more than a perm role. - You do not deal with politics, which is a major plus for me. - You do not hear about you not getting your promised y% bonus because company did not do x% business. - You are not worried about 'changing the world', the way you would in a startup. - working 4-6 years your asses of…

What is the buying power $500-550 in the UK? (I'm trying to come up with a exchange-rate-adjusted ballpark for other countries)

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#138

Post by FilterSweep »

Apologies for the ignorance.....As a barbaric American, Don't you still have to pay taxes if you are a US citizen unless you renounce it? Or does incorporation create a shelter (much like most US companies are doing)? Some relatives of mine took contracts in Canada and ended up having to pay triple taxes (two in Canada, one in USA)

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#139

Post by ska »

FilterSweep wrote: post #138

Apologies for the ignorance.....As a barbaric American, Don't you still have to pay taxes if you are a US citizen unless you renounce it? Or does incorporation create a shelter (much like most US companies are doing)? Some relatives of mine took contracts in Canada and ended up having to pay triple taxes (two in Canada, one in USA)

As a US citizen you should be filing US taxes regardless; Whether or not you owe anything to the IRS depends on a lot of factors, talk to a specialist if you have anything complicated going on. Short story is you have a foreign income exclusion of about $100k. Incorporation wont shelter you from income, and as far as I can see most of the legal "sheltering" approaches don't really work unless you're talking quite a bit of money.

To your other paragraph: your relatives shouldn't have paid any extra tax multiply. You can end up filing 4 forms, US federal, US state, Canadian federal, Canadian province, but there is a pretty comprehensive tax treaty so you end up paying in one place and claiming a credit in the other. Overall it's often nearly a wash, and whether or not you pay a bit more or less will depend on where your tax residency is and where your income is generated.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#140

Post by mtberatwork »

iyra72 wrote: post #88
codeshaman wrote: post #82

Great article, very thoughtful. But my biggest question is where do you find a client ? Is there a website (like a jobs website) for contract work, besides elance and the like ? Yeah, I can google it, but it's usually just a waste of time. Is there any serious place where an experienced developer can meet serious clients ? I mean clients willing to pay for quality work so I can make a living similar to a corporate jo…

As a very young programmer looking to make some money along his studies in the UK, I want to know where I can find clients, or even start a portfolio that's more than a few open source projects on GitHub.

I would have a look around for developer job postings at your university instead of trying to track down and maintain commercial contracts.
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