Timing of termination if no SDS and high risk of inside from April

[JamesBrown11]

Given a typical contract, say:
* daily rate
* monthly payments
* 5 days notice period

And assuming that:
* you submit timesheets on Monday for the week before
* client approves timesheets usually in less than 5 days
* you issue the invoice the same day once all timesheets for that month got approved

How early do you reckon such contract would need to be terminated (ie. notice served) to minimise the risk of payment falling into 20/21 tax year?

I've heard people say end of Feb, but that doesn't account for the notice period (if any), time it takes to get timesheets approved (approver forgot, is on holiday, or whatever), you taking your time to issue an invoice, and possibly client disputing hours or whatnot and ultimately paying after more than 30 days.

[ladymuck]

Notice period has little bearing.

The period you need to consider is the time between issuing the invoice and receiving payment.

[jamesbrown]

The event is the payment and the event date is the date the payment is made by the fee payer. The payment needs to be made on or before 5 April.

[eek]

The event is the payment and the event date is the date the payment is made by the fee payer. The payment needs to be made on or before 5 April.

which is a Sunday so it’s April 3rd.

1 month before that is Tuesday so you basically need to leave on Friday February 28th and serve notice on the 21st

[jamesbrown]

which is a Sunday so it’s April 3rd.

Right, legislatively, it's April 5, but effectively it's April 3. FAOD, what matters is when the payment is made by the fee payer (because the fee payer is responsible for a different treatment from 6 April), not when it's received.

[eek]

Right, legislatively, it's April 5, but effectively it's April 3. FAOD, what matters is when the payment is made by the fee payer (because the fee payer is responsible for a different treatment from 6 April), not when it's received.

we don’t know whether it’s a calendar month or a month means 28 days.

It’s why I would be working on feb 28th as the I’m gone day as March 6th is just pushing things too late (invoice and timesheet would be March 9th). Even on feb 28th the invoice date is March 2nd which might be tight if payment was delayed.

march 9th is just pushing things too far.

so resign on feb 21st or give 2 weeks notice and be very polite and resign on the feb 14th

[jamesbrown]

Yes, I would be working backwards from the literal deadline with a very wide berth if potentially impacted.

[JamesBrown11]

1) What if contractor decided to milk it and work through March, hoping for outside SDS, but was told inside at the last minute, terminated and decided NOT to invoice the client (so there's no payment). In other words, any legal implications to NOT issuing an invoice even though work was done?

2) And btw how to tell if any SDS provided is genuine, legally binding, and will hold all the way through to April?

[northernladuk]

What's all this legal stuff? I think you are worrying too much and making up scenarios that are highly unlikely.

[dsc]

Check with your client if they have a schedule of payments for service providers / suppliers. If they do, it normally has cut off dates and payment dates, so it would be easier to plan when invoices need to go in to get paid (no guarantees of course, if however who deals with this is on holiday and doesn't process you invoice you still don't get paid).