Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK • Hacker News Board

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#21

Post by gadders » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:52 PM UTC

tommyd wrote: post #19

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…

Other recommendations of accountants with decent online systems would be greatly appreciated. My current ones (Nixon Williams) seem fairly good as accountants, but the spreadsheet based expenses (and having to use email to take dividends, check profit/loss, etc) are getting quite annoying, and they want to charge extra to use their registered address rather than my own, which leaves a bit of a bad taste when Crunch i…

I use an accountant that is "Freeagent Compatible". I'd suggest having a look at the list on the Freeagent website (http://www.freeagent.com/).

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#22

Post by boothead » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:52 PM UTC

rossriley wrote: post #10

In terms of the recruiters section, whilst I appreciate you may not have had a good experience, this is probably the way a lot of people get contracting work, at least until you have a fairly big network of contacts. I'd be more interested in knowing what agencies do have a good reputation / good developer experience along with the note to beware of the cowboys.

In general the big ones suck and have a boiler room mentality. Good ones in my experience:

Oxford Knight

Functional Works

GQR

Hays (They're big but have been good to work with)

I'll add more as I think of them.

If you're looking for work in finance - you will almost certainly be going through a recruiter.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#23

Post by wumbernang » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:53 PM UTC

rossriley wrote: post #10

In terms of the recruiters section, whilst I appreciate you may not have had a good experience, this is probably the way a lot of people get contracting work, at least until you have a fairly big network of contacts. I'd be more interested in knowing what agencies do have a good reputation / good developer experience along with the note to beware of the cowboys.

They're all pretty good as an ex-contractor in the UK. Even getting paid is quite easy if you sub your timesheets quickly.

The killer is simply making sure that if you do the entire 6 month contract in 2 weeks that you still get paid for the rest or have a massive termination fee in the contract.

The agents don't care; they pass all costs on.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#24

Post by medwezys » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

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…

I mostly went with them because of their privacy package. They do simplify the process a little bit by putting a nice UI on top of this more manual process [1]. I'd rather pay a few extra pounds than risk submitting wrong information thus creating more trouble further down the road. Perhaps, FUD was playing a role too.

[1] - https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/overview

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#25

Post by pjc50 » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:56 PM UTC

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…

The privacy service is a genuine value-add if you don't like putting your home address on the Internet.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#26

Post by boothead » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:57 PM UTC

zimpenfish wrote: post #12

My advice would be to use an umbrella company and let them deal with all the tax hassles - they have an entire staff purely for this. You will take home slightly less (no opportunity for tax "optimisation" but I disagree with that on principle anyway) but then also have no exposure to HMRC coming after you 6 years later saying "Where's our £10,000?" (has happened to several people I know.) (edit for spelling)

You disagree with following the letter of the law and taking home extra thousands of pounds per year? Personally my attitude it that I'll apply whatever optimizations my accountant says I can without being too creative :-)

Also, some companies that masquerade as umbrellas are doing some pretty shady things. If they promise some un-feasibly large percentage of take home pay (over 80%) they're probably doing some dodgy Isle of Man scheme and you'll be left holding the can.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#27

Post by Nursie » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:57 PM UTC

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…

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 reasons to avoid working for one client long-term too. At the moment you sign up for a contract or contract renewal that takes you over the two year mark, you can no longer claim day to day expenses.

I.E. I sign an initial 18 month contract, and at the end sign up for another year. From the18 month point the client office will be considered my 'normal place of work', regardless of IR35, so the company cannot pay for transport or lunch any more.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#28

Post by pjc50 » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:58 PM UTC

jackgavigan wrote: post #4

> The fixed rate VAT does not let you reclaim VAT, but you pay a lower rate than you charge your clients. So if you're a developer contractor you'll be adding 20% VAT to your client invoices, but only pay 14.5% to HMRC, keeping the remaining 5.5% to the business. This is not correct. The way the flat rate VAT scheme works is you add VAT to your bill, then pay 14.5% of your "flat rate turnover" to HMRC. Flat rate turn…

It also doesn't mention that you don't need to register for VAT until you have a turnover of £82k.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#29

Post by Nursie » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:59 PM UTC

medwezys wrote: post #24

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…

I mostly went with them because of their privacy package. They do simplify the process a little bit by putting a nice UI on top of this more manual process [1]. I'd rather pay a few extra pounds than risk submitting wrong information thus creating more trouble further down the road. Perhaps, FUD was playing a role too. [1] - https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/overview

I found it pretty easy when I did it three years ago, it's not hard.

That said, I didn't need to bother, as part of on-boarding with my accountant they would have done it all for me.

Re: Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

#30

Post by gadders » Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 3:59 PM UTC

gadders wrote: post #6

I'd also mention joining IPSE ( http://www.ipse.co.uk/ ) which a is trade organisation for freelancers. They provide various benefits including IR35 insurance that covers investigations. Freeagent is a good online accounts package as well, but you need to find an accountant that uses it.

One other thing I would say is that I'm not sure your points about IR35 are correct. EG:

* Don't use equipment provided by the client; -- This would be very hard to do. Most clients I've ever worked for supply you with a PC to use and won't allow non-corporate devices on their network.

* Be careful with paid-for meals or participating in company parties. -- Never heard this mentioned before.

* Avoid working for one client for longer than a year when possible. -- A lot of cients will enforce a maximum period of 2 years anyway, as after that you could theoretically claim benefits.

There are a lot of scare stories propogated about IR35, and a lot of it is by companies that sell IR35 Contract Reviews, IR35 Insurance etc. The number of IR35 investigations each year is in the low thousands, and there are 1.8m contractors in the UK.