Likelihood of HMRC investigation

[Noiro]

It's common for people with expert level knowledge to underestimate their abilities (as they are often acutely aware of their own limitations, overestimating the capabilities of others). While the talented amateur has no idea what they don't know. I hope this does not reflect a personal insecurity that undermines your negotiating skills.

Perfectly describing the Dunning-Kruger effect, which applies equally to those with low ability (who think they're good because they don't know enough to realise they're not) and those with high ability (who underestimate their ability as they know they are not perfect). See also : Imposter syndrome for the latter situation.

I suspect both conditions are quite common, from personal observation in IT contract roles.

[RobScott]

About 5 years I think? They queried two tax years, one of them was right at the end of the period it could be queried in.

Good that you have taken all the precautions. I have some friends who don't have any insurance and yet have been working as contractors in an outside IR35 role, working in the same firm for ages! how do they sleep at night? truth is, they don't seem to care!

[dogeson]

Good that you have taken all the precautions. I have some friends who don't have any insurance and yet have been working as contractors in an outside IR35 role, working in the same firm for ages! how do they sleep at night? truth is, they don't seem to care!

They don't care because that's so unlikely to happen I suppose. The odds are not in HMRC's favour. And even if they waste all the taxpayer monkey to bring him to the tribunal, how likely they can get that money back from the company? They'll have to go and make director personally liable (which apparently never happened in history). I don't see how HMRC wins overall (even if they win the case)

[cojak]

It used to be close to zero when HMRC focused on the individual contractor (as in those celebrity cases). Now that they’ve focussed on the fee-payer, the worry is that outside contracts become inside during the contract because the client gets cold feet as they’re in line to pay the tax due.

There’s little to no publicity for this but you can bet your sweet patootie that it’s happening more often.

[malvolio]

I don't know of a single IT skill that a smart hardworking permie couldn't pick up in a few months at most. Especially in these day of Google searches and Stack overflow.

Can you name one?


Luckily for us there is shortage of smart hardworking permies.

Any business change programme. Things like getting them to use ITIL properly. Any architectural role, be it technical or business related. Problem management and remediation. There are lots of examples.

Thing is that lot need a broad range of disciplines (have you ever read a Service Design for an outsourced delivery? Look at how many other disciplines that touches on.) and that takes time and exposure to different environments. If you've spent 20 years working for one BigCo, you won't have that, whereas any successful contractor will have it in spades.