IR35 - do most avoid it? Also SQL Server skills - are they in demand?

[KentPhilip]

(Reposted from general forum which was the wrong place for it)

First thanks to those of you good people who answered my posts here last week. I'm going to be cheeky and ask a third question, on IR35 and SQL Server, if I may?

1. There is lots of talk about what you can do to get around IR35, but no information on here about how many of you are, in the end, caught by it. As a rough percentage, how many of you IT contractors have to pay it? most of you, half, only a few?

As a first-time contractor applying for contracts on jobserve.com, how realistic are my chances of getting a non-IR35-caught contract? If I "insist" to agencies that I do what is necessary to tailor a contract outside of IR35 is that going to limit my job options.

I expect you want to know my skillset to answer this question: It is 5 years permie experience of third-line support of a large bespoke content management system based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Jobs involved investigating user problems and system failures, gathering evidence, reliably replicating fault scenarios on the test servers, and reporting these back to the software developers to fix. And rolling out new fixed versions of stored procedures etc. Some VB Script coding.


2. If I wanted to do this sort of thing on a contract basis, what sort of rate would I reasonably get, for my first contract, and beyond?
With the above experience could I go for roles as a "SQL Server DBA (database administrator)" even though I only spent around 10% of my time on SQL Server itself.


I'm running a small business that is taking time to get going, is not making any money yet, and I'm wondering whether to try to keep my options open by going for a 3-month contract while working on my business in my spare time until it starts making some money.
I took voluntary redundancy from my permie job 3 months ago, and although I have plenty of cash to last for years I don't want to spend too long as a "dragons den dosser" getting up at midday, coding at 4am, and eating lunch with Trevor MacDonald (i.e. eating lunch at 10pm).

Thanks again.

[Sockpuppet]

1. I'd say less people on here are caught by IR35 then general as people on here are generally more clued up that the general contractor.

2. Take what you are happy with. If you are finding a job that will let you work close to home flexible around your own business then take a small rate. £200 is £200 you would not have had.

[max]

The thing about rates and contracts is that they are not generally correlated to much to your experiance.

He who dares and all that.

You do seem to be thinking about it too much.

Relax...do something..do it now(right now)

What will probably need some explaining is why you havn't been working for the last 3 months. It seems there is some regulation that compells agencies to need to account for your time. The longer you leave it the more untouchable you will become.

[KentPhilip]

The thing about rates and contracts is that they are not generally correlated to much to your experiance.

He who dares and all that.

You do seem to be thinking about it too much.

Relax...do something..do it now(right now)

What will probably need some explaining is why you havn't been working for the last 3 months. It seems there is some regulation that compells agencies to need to account for your time. The longer you leave it the more untouchable you will become.

really? I thought the thing about being a contractor was that you earn so much money that many do take months off if they want to. I heard about one contractor in 1999 who only worked 3 months in the year as he earned enough in that time to sustain him for the rest of the time.

In my case I took 6 weeks off work after leaving my permie job and then the rest of my time trying to start this business. Also I have plenty of cash savings to last for years. Would that be a sufficient "excuse" for my lost 3 months?

But yes I should chill a little.
Stress - the story of my life.

[max]

really? I thought the thing about being a contractor was that you earn so much money that many do take months off if they want to. I heard about one contractor in 1999 who only worked 3 months in the year as he earned enough in that time to sustain him for the rest of the time.

Yep...IMO, one of the myths about contracting is the time off. You will get addicted to the weekly bonuses, and paranoid that the market will turn if you step away for a short time. You'll get some time off when you retire or buy the farm.

In my case I took 6 weeks off work after leaving my permie job and then the rest of my time trying to start this business. Also I have plenty of cash savings to last for years. Would that be a sufficient "excuse" for my lost 3 months?

Forget the cash stuff. Took a holiday.

But yes I should chill a little.
Stress - the story of my life.

Forget contracting....you're going to get stress from suprising new places...generally enimating from HMRC(supossedly big supporters of small business), but also from the east etc etc.

[kingshuk]

There is lots of talk about what you can do to get around IR35, but no information on here about how many of you are, in the end, caught by it. As a rough percentage, how many of you IT contractors have to pay it? most of you, half, only a few?

I too had been thinking about how to get some numbers on this - just out of curiosity about IR35's effectiveness. There are some numbers on the number of wins/losses in PCG but they of course do not cover all. Also it doens't tell us the number of ongoing investigations.

Was wondering whether Freedom Of Information act can be used to obtain this number directly from IR. Any thoughts?

[KentPhilip]

Yep...IMO, one of the myths about contracting is the time off. You will get addicted to the weekly bonuses, and paranoid that the market will turn if you step away for a short time. You'll get some time off when you retire or buy the farm.




Forget the cash stuff. Took a holiday.



Forget contracting....you're going to get stress from suprising new places...generally enimating from HMRC(supossedly big supporters of small business), but also from the east etc etc.

Well thanks for the advice but I'm not going to forget contracting for those reasons. I did contracting for a single client for three years some years ago and I had no stress from HMRC or the East. Mind you I was soooo IR35-caught that I just rolled over and accepted it (and my client was a a**e saying "you ought to pay more tax").

[malvolio]

I too had been thinking about how to get some numbers on this - just out of curiosity about IR35's effectiveness. There are some numbers on the number of wins/losses in PCG but they of course do not cover all. Also it doens't tell us the number of ongoing investigations.

Was wondering whether Freedom Of Information act can be used to obtain this number directly from IR. Any thoughts?

Doubt it. The exact question was asked in the HoC by Mark Prisk some years back, as a PCG-insprired bit of data collection. Dim Prawn's answer was that HMRC do not keep the data necessary to answer that question...

An intelligent guess has put the tax derived from IR35 at a few hundred million pa, well under the original estimate of £900m. Because HMRC are not hailing it as a success, we can be fairly sure that it is barely economic to continue it.

OTOH, if you want numbers, it's estimated that Arctic cost HMRC a shade over £0.5m by the end of the appeals process. The total tax in dispute was £7000.

[max]

Well thanks for the advice but I'm not going to forget contracting for those reasons. I did contracting for a single client for three years some years ago and I had no stress from HMRC or the East. Mind you I was soooo IR35-caught that I just rolled over and accepted it (and my client was a a**e saying "you ought to pay more tax").

FFS....if you paid up, then off course the stress from HMRC is going to be reduced, innit.

Suprised(not really) you let your client have a say about the tax you paid. If they want to have the say on this, they need to employ you. (ala has camaron said to brown during PMQ, if you want to ask me questions ...call an election)

[KentPhilip]

FFS....if you paid up, then off course the stress from HMRC is going to be reduced, innit.

Suprised(not really) you let your client have a say about the tax you paid. If they want to have the say on this, they need to employ you. (ala has camaron said to brown during PMQ, if you want to ask me questions ...call an election)

Well of course you're right but I recon that had I been outside of IR35 then it would give me no stress. I would (and do) keep lots of cash in reserve to pay for that sort of thing.

And can't you get insurance against IR35 (don't answer that - I'm being lazy and should look it up myself).

But the problem with my ex-client was that he said I should pay more tax and was therefore not willing to even consider changing my working conditions to put me outside of IR35. So I thought the light was not worth the candle in terms of trying to get around it.

I suppose afterall tax is spent on things that are useful to us such as the NHS, education, protection (police, army) so it is not really "wasted" money.