avoid 40% dividend tax

[Fred Bloggs]

Sorry to hear this and hope it changes soon but thanks for coming on and explaining there is the other side to contracting.

Thanks, I'm not giving up just yet! But the permie jobs market seems just as bad at present, so there's no options there either.

[jamesbrown]

Sorry to hear this and hope it changes soon but thanks for coming on and explaining there is the other side to contracting.

+1 Valuable post for n00bs. You can't prepare much better than an 18mo warchest. It's easy to lose sight of the downsides of contracting during a boom, but they become pretty apparent during a downturn, as currently being experienced in oil/gas.

[NickNick]

Thanks for the advice everyone.
...

Is a shame though, feels like I've been putting the hours in for nothing. Im sure I'll thank myself down the line tho.

Well, not nothing, but 70? 80? thousand in to your house in the first 9 months of the tax year.

[oracleslave]

Thanks, I'm not giving up just yet! But the permie jobs market seems just as bad at present, so there's no options there either.

Is this due the oil price plummeting?

[ChimpMaster]

Sheesh I'd never read Richard's thread before. What became of him later?

To think, that we're now on the cusp of a huge recession / depression and could well see longer bench times again. I'd like to think I'm prepared for it, which perhaps I am financially, but mentally it's another matter.

[TheFaQQer]

Sheesh I'd never read Richard's thread before. What became of him later?

He stopped using that particular sockie.

[Fred Bloggs]

Is this due the oil price plummeting?

That is the root cause, as a result there are thousands of engineers on the bench the world over. Billions of dollars of projects have been canned. In past times I'd find work in petrochem manufacture that typically booms when gas/oil prices are low. But now that probably 90% of our industry has gone and the 10% rump left is foreign owned, there is no petrochem work this time around. O&G is a very international business and we in the UK are not best placed to compete.

[seanraaron]

I was in the telecoms bit of my last company which was part of the energy division. Not a happy time I can tell you before I left/got shown the door.