leave contracting?

**sal** · 10 February 2015, 14:34

Setting asaid the financial side, personally i couldn't stomach being an employee for a large corporation / bank with all the butt licking and politics involved, but YMMV

**tractor** · 10 February 2015, 14:44

Originally posted by sal View Post

Setting asaid the financial side, personally i couldn't stomach being an employee for a large corporation / bank with all the butt licking and politics involved, but YMMV

Yes, but enougn about DSK banking is not all about that. Just mostly.

**northernladuk** · 10 February 2015, 14:56

IMO this is down to a personal choice..

Can you go perm and come back contracting? Of course you can and some people will have to do it to skill up or change direction. Plenty of people on here are ex contractors in permie roles.

Is it financially viable? Let's face it. Permies are hardly on the breadline. Might be a lot less than we are but still it's a decent wage. It could just be for a couple of years that just needs a bit of budgeting and then go contracting but yes, it can be done.

Is permie land an utter nightmare? Depends on your outlook but there are plenty of people that do it and are quite happy (apart from a bit of moaning but that's hardly much different to all walks of life, even contracting according to PC). Some people might relish the challenges, try the career ladder, enjoy working as a team and be happy in their (apparent) job security. Again if it's only temporary it's just a matter of sucking it up. There are nightmare gigs out there and there are gigs that can last for years and you have to deal with the same humdrum (almost). ?

So all in all it's very possible. The question to ask is can YOU do it and does it suit your financial situation and long term outlook. Only you can answer that.

**BlasterBates** · 10 February 2015, 15:42

The truth is there is not much difference between being a contractor or a permie. The key things are contractor rate, do you travel, how much do you have after tax i.e. you can avoid tax as a contractor.

The finance world is going through structural changes at the moment, the banks are in a downward spiral but plenty of opportunities at IT companies developing trading systems and at non-banks eg Hedge funds.

Some of these look interesting though I suspect pretty stressful, especially the hedge funds.

Banks used to be money for old rope, fairly bureacratic, profitable without having to try, and would stick your rate up without you asking, but they're now constantly trying to get their costs down, so if you go into bank watch out for the inevitable rate cuts, and I imagine the feeling of "wading through treacle" has got a little worse over the last couple of years.

There's no problem going from contractor to permie back to contractor, no one really cares what you were because a lot PM's hardly differentiate between the two, at least the ones with a 50-50 split. In banks I've often experienced that they'll take on both for the same role i.e. looking for a mix of contractors and perms in the same team.

**hgllgh** · 10 February 2015, 17:00

Thanks for your thoughts. It would feel strange going back to permiedom ... closing down the company would be a bit of a pain... would have to extract the warchest paying least amount of tax...I've grown quite attached to my warchest, even if it is sitting there doing b*gger all.

As long as I could squirrel as much salary as possible above the 40% higher tax rate into a pension then as long as the salary is relatively high there's really not a lot of difference is there?

And, as I previously mentioned, it is pretty much the only way to break into the financial sector.

hmmmm......Am I actually going to do this ...

**oliverson** · 10 February 2015, 17:10

Originally posted by hgllgh View Post

Thanks for your thoughts. It would feel strange going back to permiedom ... closing down the company would be a bit of a pain... would have to extract the warchest paying least amount of tax...I've grown quite attached to my warchest, even if it is sitting there doing b*gger all.

As long as I could squirrel as much salary as possible above the 40% higher tax rate into a pension then as long as the salary is relatively high there's really not a lot of difference is there?

And, as I previously mentioned, it is pretty much the only way to break into the financial sector.

hmmmm......Am I actually going to do this ...

Disagree with that as I'm living proof and I have friends who are the same. If you're good at what you do and persevere, you will get in but whether you'd want to stay a while is quite another matter!

**PurpleGorilla** · 10 February 2015, 18:54

Maybe look for a near full time permie role with the capacity for a bit of contracting on the side? Keep your company running and bow chicca bow wow.

**Tasslehoff** · 10 February 2015, 19:02

YANTOBAC

**heyya99** · 10 February 2015, 20:07

Originally posted by hgllgh View Post

Thanks for your thoughts. It would feel strange going back to permiedom ... closing down the company would be a bit of a pain... would have to extract the warchest paying least amount of tax...I've grown quite attached to my warchest, even if it is sitting there doing b*gger all.

As long as I could squirrel as much salary as possible above the 40% higher tax rate into a pension then as long as the salary is relatively high there's really not a lot of difference is there?

And, as I previously mentioned, it is pretty much the only way to break into the financial sector.

hmmmm......Am I actually going to do this ...

When closing your company, am I right in saying you pay 25% tax on any dividend over the tax free band?

leave contracting?