Your opinions please

[MarillionFan]

As a contractor why give a tulip. Thats a permie attitude you have there.

If a contractor is sat around with nothing to do that is the fault of the client. At the end of the day we are resource to be used and abused.

If you are diligent etc then bully for you. I actually fall into that camp as well and have finished contracts early because of a lack of work, but this does me no good, it costs me money.

If you buy a ferrari and stick it in the garage who's fault is that.

[The Lone Gunman]

I am pretty confident I will be outside IR35 as only doing it parttime as well. I have heard contractor rates being 2-2.5 times the permie salary, but no idea if that is true and even if it was depends on how you adjust salary to a daily rate.

Tks Mike

You need an attitude adjustment! Forget about salaries and salary equivelants.
You ar ein business and you supply a commodity. You are subject to the whims of supply and demand.
Your hourly rate is dependant on the market and how much you are willing to work for.
Set the rate too low and you are not doing yourself justice. You will probably find contracts easier to get though. Remember, you will also be pushing the market down which we wont like.
Set the rate too high and you will not work so much, but will earn a lot when on contract.

This is about how you run your business and how much you charge for your product.

To answer your question, and it is only a rule of thumb, take the amount you would earn in thousands and divide by a thousand. That gives and hourly rate guide (as I said the market may say different). 50,000/1000 = 50 per hour.