Official Summer 2015 Budget Thread

[mudskipper]

Not really. In permie land the difference between 'senior' and 'dogs-bollox' is 10k a year in salary.
Meanwhile I'd be looking at 80-90k in London, while being a 450 - 500 per day contractor (in London).

Either way, without wanting to derail the thread, it's mainly the travel / hotel costs that make a permie job in London not worth considering for me. After this budget it's closer to being the only reason.

Up north I might be on 350 per day or 40k permie - that's a big difference. In London the difference isn't so big.

Get 'em while they're in stock.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...n_Document.pdf

[centurian]

Clients pay the market rate. If that goes up, they pay more.

Clients choose if they are prepared to pay the current market rate.

A subtle, but important difference. They can opt for alternative resourcing options, or rescope/defer/ditch the intended work.

[SimonMac]

Get 'em while they're in stock.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...n_Document.pdf

To be fair this is my biggest question mark, if I lose expenses it will not be in my interest to keep contracting, plain and simple.

[Platypus]

Significantly = 7.5% above £5,000.

The key point in the budget isn't the new rates, but the removal of the dividend tax credit, so for people who take dividends above the higher limit the 32.5% rate replaces the (effective) 25% rate.

Yeah, can someone explain this? I thought that the current rate of tax due on dividends in the higher (not highest) tax bracket was already 32.5%

Does this change mean I should empty the company's reserves now and take the tax hit?

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

One question if the NI allowance of 2k (going up to 3) is removed for sole director sole employee. What if the wife is 50% owner and does the books with the odd bit of contracting.

If she is paid a salary (not dividends) then presumably you would still be able to claim the allowance.

[centurian]

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...on__print_.pdf

See Page 18:

3.12 For example, it has been suggested that a fundamental reform of the system so that pension contributions are taxed upfront (a “Taxed-Exempt-Exempt” system like ISAs)

Makes sense - scrap pensions tax relief as it currently stands - and basically just extend the ISA concept

Pay in with post-tax salary, get some tax free growth, but don't pay tax on the way out.

Much simpler than flat rate pensions tax relief.

Will take some sorting out with final salary schemes - the final salary will need to recalculated at a lower amount, but with no tax to pay on it

[SpontaneousOrder]

To be fair this is my biggest question mark, if I lose expenses it will not be in my interest to keep contracting, plain and simple.

Isn't that basically just removing relief from "ir35 caught" contractors, whether that be ltd or umbrella?

[FarmerPalmer]

Get 'em while they're in stock.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...n_Document.pdf

But that will only apply to contractors under "Supervision, Direction & Control" of the client.
This is the same test as for employees under the Agency Worker Regulations.
I don't think any client would want you to fail that test

[expat]

I confirm the Official status of this Summer 2015 "bend-over" Budget thread.

The only thing that puzzles me is why some people on here seemed to think that a Conservative government would be good for contractors. To people like Osborne, we are not businesses or even a flexible workforce, we are just a cost to business.

[SimonMac]

Isn't that basically just removing relief from "ir35 caught" contractors, whether that be ltd or umbrella?

Well I am getting mixed messages, some say its all brollys are losing expenses, some are saying if you are caught you are losing them etc etc.