Why we MUST ditch our lazy attitude to finding work through agents and agencies

[AtW]

If I also read this right, its not just expenses we are being hit with, we are going to be automatically deemed within IR35? If this is the case what is the point of running our own LtdCo anymore, the brollys must be happy(ish)

Running LtdCo will still have an advantage of being able to purchase your own favourite brand of Vaseline rather than being given some bog-standard issue by the brolly.

HTH

P.S. Yes, it will be treated as BIK!

[darmstadt]

The prime minister extended his thanks “to the entrepreneurs, to the techies, to the roof tillers, to the retailers, to the plumbers, to the builders”, for engineering the “biggest economic turnaround in Europe”.

A commitment to reviewing the “disadvantages faced by the self-employed” – now 15% of the labour force – including accessing maternity pay and building up pensions. An “urgent review” will be commissioned into the disadvantages the self-employed face.

The Tories are the party of “grafters and the roofers and the retailers and the plumbers”...the Prime Minister will say that he “gets” and “respects” the small businesses that are the “backbone of our economy”.

“We can either get straight back to work on May 8 delivering that plan or Britain can be plunged into political instability and economic chaos.”

They're doing what they said they would, aren't they?

[NotAllThere]

You contractors can't half BS when it comes to justifying tax avoidance.

If they disallow travel and substinence expenses all it means is you have to do what everybody else does: pay for it out of your own pocket...

You are somewhat comparing apples with oranges. For many contractors, the correct comparison would be with consultants who are employees of the likes of PwC. Consultants don't pay for their T&S expenses to clients out of their own pockets.

However, the disallowing of T&S expenses to and from the place of work will not mean the end of contracting. When I first went contracting the usual stance of your local tax office was that T&S were not tax deducatable- that where you were working was your primary job - and yet the number of contractors kept increasing. The rates of pay more than made up for the expense of travelling and day to day upkeep.

[The Spartan]

You are somewhat comparing apples with oranges. For many contractors, the correct comparison would be with consultants who are employees of the likes of PwC. Consultants don't pay for their T&S expenses to clients out of their own pockets.

However, the disallowing of T&S expenses to and from the place of work will not mean the end of contracting. When I first went contracting the usual stance of your local tax office was that T&S were not tax deducatable- that where you were working was your primary job - and yet the number of contractors kept increasing. The rates of pay more than made up for the expense of travelling and day to day upkeep.

For me most contracts involve travelling and staying over mon-fri as unfortunately Wales is not flush with contract positions so I've spent most of my time working down and around near London, to be fair mind those living around London also pay a huge amount in travel but on the whole I spend more as I'm away from home. Being unable to claim T&S would put a stop to me doing this and only a surge in the number of contracts in Wales or Bristol would allow me to keep on contracting.

Agree wholeheartedly with you point about comparing apples to oranges I'm sure there would be uproar if this was also rolled out to consultants of the big firms like PwC, KPMG, Deloitte etc

[Gumbo Robot]

If you can earn double a permie's gross as a contractor how can it not still be worth being a contractor even paying the same rate of tax as everyone else?

You're only really getting back 20% of expenses as things stand now, so is having to pay that 20% of a B&B bill really going to "screw the 'stay away' crowd"?

I don't know what sort of a world you inhabit - you often trot out the same line about us having to be grateful for earning twice as much as the average permie.

If you're on a long term rolling contract in an IB then fair enough but for most of my contracting career I've been doing 6 months here, 6 months there on a range of different rates with some occasional sizeable gaps between these stints.

Your figures just do not add up for me & while I'm happy with my current situation, the planned end to tax relief on expenses will definitely see me changing the way I operate. I just won't do any Mon - Fri gigs any more. Simple.

[MrMarkyMark]

You're exactly in the same position as the millions of permies, which is the point.

Really? I don't think so, did someone put something in your tea?

For many contractors, the correct comparison would be with consultants who are employees of the likes of PwC. Consultants don't pay for their T&S expenses to clients out of their own pockets.

This.

[eek]

For me most contracts involve travelling and staying over mon-fri as unfortunately Wales is not flush with contract positions so I've spent most of my time working down and around near London, to be fair mind those living around London also pay a huge amount in travel but on the whole I spend more as I'm away from home. Being unable to claim T&S would put a stop to me doing this and only a surge in the number of contracts in Wales or Bristol would allow me to keep on contracting.

Agree wholeheartedly with you point about comparing apples to oranges I'm sure there would be uproar if this was also rolled out to consultants of the big firms like PwC, KPMG, Deloitte etc

For this period of contracting (2012 onwards) all my contracts bar one have been as associate to large blue chip consultancies. On the expenses rule there is no way that it can be implemented as is because it would create the situation below that would fail a judicial review.

For many contractors, the correct comparison would be with consultants who are employees of the likes of PwC. Consultants don't pay for their T&S expenses to clients out of their own pockets.

[SueEllen]

You contractors can't half BS when it comes to justifying tax avoidance.

If they disallow travel and substinence expenses all it means is you have to do what everybody else does: pay for it out of your own pocket. There's no point in YourCo reimbursing you the expenses (because it would be a BIK anyway). You're exactly in the same position as the millions of permies, which is the point. YourCo pays you, either via salary or tax avoiding dividends, and you pay your expenses.

Don't know what you are drinking but what you and HMRC don't understand is that not all contractors take contracts within commuting distance of where they live.

This can be due to where they live now not having any industry for their skills.

[BrilloPad]

Don't know what you are drinking but what you and HMRC don't understand is that not all contractors take contracts within commuting distance of where they live.

This can be due to where they live now not having any industry for their skills.

IMO you are missing the point.

To HMRC we are all tax avoiders. Soon the only thing we will be left with is dividends over salary. And that gap is narrowing.

The issue is that tax avoidance is legal. HMRC do not recognize that.

[MicrosoftBob]

Don't know what you are drinking but what you and HMRC don't understand is that not all contractors take contracts within commuting distance of where they live.

This can be due to where they live now not having any industry for their skills.

That and when a contract ends, one usually takes a pick of the contracts available from your skills wherever they are, rather than sit there claiming benefits waiting for the dream contract to magically appear walking distance from your home