Crunch accountant or personal one ?

[Fred Bloggs]

Edinburgh-based FinTech firm FreeAgent IPOs on AIM, raises £10.7m | Tech City News

Edinburgh-based FinTech company FreeAgent has floated on AIM, raising £10.7m.

Yes, the question I have for the business is - What are their plans for diversification if the HMG/HMRC attacks on free lance working spreads to the private sector and damages their business model?

[Maslins]

Yes, the question I have for the business is - What are their plans for diversification if the HMG/HMRC attacks on free lance working spreads to the private sector and damages their business model?

I'm certainly not a FreeAgent spokesperson, but I think that whilst FreeAgent are fairly heavily dependent on contractors, they also have lots of more clearcut freelancers who are a long way from IR35 (eg web designers knocking up websites for £500/pop fixed price, lots of clients at same time etc), and increasingly drifting into construction industry CIS stuff.

But yes, there's no doubt that your IT contractors/similar will make up a huge chunk of their, and indeed our, clients. IR35's been around for a long time and there's regularly been fear of "what if the market's destroyed overnight", which has thankfully not yet materialised. Whilst I imagine there may well be a continued squeeze to follow the dividend tax & FRS hit, it doesn't make sense for them to kill it off completely. Of course these could be (not very) famous last words.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I'm certainly not a FreeAgent spokesperson, but I think that whilst FreeAgent are fairly heavily dependent on contractors, they also have lots of more clearcut freelancers who are a long way from IR35 (eg web designers knocking up websites for £500/pop fixed price, lots of clients at same time etc), and increasingly drifting into construction industry CIS stuff.

But yes, there's no doubt that your IT contractors/similar will make up a huge chunk of their, and indeed our, clients. IR35's been around for a long time and there's regularly been fear of "what if the market's destroyed overnight", which has thankfully not yet materialised. Whilst I imagine there may well be a continued squeeze to follow the dividend tax & FRS hit, it doesn't make sense for them to kill it off completely. Of course these could be (not very) famous last words.

The share price took a bit of a knock on Wednesday PM but it seems to have recovered. The fact that the city backed them so strongly on the float gave me some assurances that either (a) contracting is here to stay or (b) they have a diverse enough portfolio to continue to grow. Personally, I', not convinced about (a) anymore.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

But yes, there's no doubt that your IT contractors/similar will make up a huge chunk of their, and indeed our, clients. IR35's been around for a long time and there's regularly been fear of "what if the market's destroyed overnight", which has thankfully not yet materialised. Whilst I imagine there may well be a continued squeeze to follow the dividend tax & FRS hit, it doesn't make sense for them to kill it off completely. Of course these could be (not very) famous last words.

Having been servicing the sector for 25 years, and remembering the gloom post 1998 and the IR35 announcement by Gordon Brown, the knockbacks do seem to get overcome and the the sector adapts and thrives.

I think HMG may find their squeeze on the sector, especially the Public Sector rules, shoots them in the foot with the massive programme of change happening with things like MTD and Brexit. They will need whatever good help they can get, and I suspect that will mean some olive branches and/or humble pie. Watch this space...

[northernladuk]

Having been servicing the sector for 25 years,

My other half has been doing that as well

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

My other half has been doing that as well

I knew, as soon as I wrote that, it was open to interpretation ....

[Fred Bloggs]

The share price took a bit of a knock on Wednesday PM but it seems to have recovered. The fact that the city backed them so strongly on the float gave me some assurances that either (a) contracting is here to stay or (b) they have a diverse enough portfolio to continue to grow. Personally, I', not convinced about (a) anymore.

Yes, I noticed. I was tempted to bung a small portion of my SIPP into the shares on float but didn't. I'm watching them now and if things seem to be blowing over, I might still invest in the business in a small way.

There can be no doubt HMG want a big change in the contracting landscape, whether they will succeed or whether the industry will carry on with new blood replacing old, the jury is out for me. If they succeed, large numbers of contractors will move onto FTC's or agency payrolls.