Advice for taking contracts from non-UK companies

[Martin@AS Financial]

One of the big things I would say to consider is you will need to allow for currency fluctuations should the day rate be in say dollars or euros. From a mortgage point of view, there are not many banks that lend to clients that do not earn in sterling and most will take a haircut off your income.

Something else to consider is whether the client will cover things like your travel and hotel bills should you be needed in the overseas office.

[jamesbrown]

I got a sniff at a US contract paying $150/hour last year, but unfortunately did not get it. That rate has left me inspired to try and find some work for a US business. The main problem there is I don't have any useful contacts or understanding of how to find contracts in the US.

Yeah, you're unlikely to find gigs in the US without a solid list of contacts, but it's worth the investment in building them if you do have a niche skillset because US rates are in a different category to the UK or EU. That said, the market there is completely different than here - there's no mainstream use of agency contractors that you see in the UK. Mainstream skillsets are delivered by employees, but perm salaries are in a different league there too.

On mortgages, there are one or two lenders that will lend against USD or EUR T&M rates (e.g., Clydesdale, IIRC), but not many and generally not at the best rates, but there are others that will look at company profits, for example.

[oliverson]

I'm working with a US client that has no presence here in the UK and tbh, it just fell into my lap. I certainly wouldn't expect to be able to build up a portfolio of US clients from the ground up.

As others have said, there are issues such as IR35 (old rules still apply), contract jurisdiction / insurances, exchange rate fluctuations, time zones, UK mortgage lenders, etc., but none of them have been an issue for me. In fact invoicing in USD and receiving payment in USD has been very favourable the last couple of years.

I think you'd be very lucky, as I was, to pursue this line, but it's not impossible.

[jamesbrown]

Article today in the Torygraph on the massive UK/US disparity in nominal and real terms for most industries and professions:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/co...uch-americans/

( Torygraph paywall was implemented by morons, so turn off javascript for that domain to access. )

[funkyContractorITUK]

Thanks everyone for the advice and comments. Oh I didn't realise that IR35 was still a thing for overseas clients.....that's just crazy.

[funkyContractorITUK]

Either way my contracts will be assessed by Kingsbridge and then its a case of me checking that in practice the contracts are inside/outside.

[jamesbrown]

Thanks everyone for the advice and comments. Oh I didn't realise that IR35 was still a thing for overseas clients.....that's just crazy.

Why? I mean, if you and the intermediary through which you work are UK tax payers, why wouldn't UK tax legislation apply? Likewise, to any other entity in the supply chain. In practice, it may be harder for an overseas client to assert the degree of D&C needed for a contract to be inside IR35, but the test remains the same. Note that Chapter 10 does not apply to clients with no UK presence.