Reply to: Is any one putting their rates up 2016 - 2017

[DimPrawn]

I am due to increase my rates but not because "the nasty tax man is taking my pocket money so please can I have £50 more a day please".

You tell your client that your costs have risen if you go this route.

I usually show a picture of my ex-wife standing outside her massive house, with luxury executive motor car on the drive. That works. Unless the hiring manager is a woman.

[d000hg]

I am due to increase my rates but not because "the nasty tax man is taking my pocket money so please can I have £50 more a day please".

You tell your client that your costs have risen if you go this route.

[WordIsBond]

My rate has increased from £6 an hour to £6.30 an hour which is a 5% increase year on year. If I can increase my rate by 5% a year on a compounded basis I will be rich in 20 years

Until the cost of living increases by more than 5% and then you are screwed.

But as long as you are a director of YourCo you don't have to pay yourself NMW, so it's all good.

[Jack Kada]

With new rules on dividends , a potential tax on expenses if sdc comes in (will do in one form or another) and a few other back door changes to the way we pay tax , is anyone going to ask for a higher rate next year ?

Thinking of asking for 50 quid a day more next year to cover some of these extras, agent says that its possible I could get it but wont know until he asks

My rate has increased from £6 an hour to £6.30 an hour which is a 5% increase year on year. If I can increase my rate by 5% a year on a compounded basis I will be rich in 20 years

[Zero Liability]

Doubt I'll be contracting then as I am considering a change of field.

[SlipTheJab]

I was on £500 quid a day as a contractor in London a while back so thats 500 * 5 * 46 = £115,000 ish. Permie devs were on 75k basic (plus bonus, pension, holidays, training etc) and contractors were deemed by all permies to be overpaid!

[Ticktock]

Nope there is still a BIK. The fact that the client or your company is paying them is irrelevant. The simple fact is that your visit to darkest Snowdonia is as essential part of your permanent job and therefore a Benefit in Kind.

That is the insanity of it as its currently proposed... Even individual meetings are hard to justify under what is proposed..

OK, then that is stupid. TBH, I hadn't really looked at what was happening so didn't realise the details and assumed people were being overdramatic as usual.

So, MyCo buys a new laptop, as it's essential for me as the worker, no BIK.
MyCo buys a train ticket, as it's needed for the business, BIK to the worker who uses it.

I should just say I bought train tickets but never used them, so there was no benefit provided to me by MyCo buying them...

[MicrosoftBob]

Client has a quiet a world and asked me to have a word with my agent as I deserve a £50 a day come renewal in December

The funny thing is I expect agent to threaten to terminate my contract, and I'll have to take it down to the wire and threaten to walk, the joys of contracting not

I think this is more to do with length of time I've been there and business continuity on their part than any incoming legal changes (I don't think they'd give a stuff about that, they leave that all to HR)

[eek]

Just started a gig last week at my highest rate yet - and having been giving some planning docs for the project found that the client was forced to reduce their budget for my role, otherwise it would have been stupendous.

As for what happens next year, I'll wait and see. Divi tax is a "meh". OK, I'll end up paying a bit more tax than I used to, but I can live with that. T&S may be more of an issue, however in the past I've had contracts where I've WFH, then recharged travel costs when having to visit the office so this could be an option. As these are expenses incurred by MyCo, paid by MyCo (Corp Credit / Debit card) and then invoiced for by MyCo these are not paid to me and I'd hope this would mean no BIK.

Where there is no WFH at all (some clients have had the opinion that everyone should be sat at a desk all day) then I'd be looking at distance / cost, whether to soak these up, increase the rate or tell the client to take a running jump.

Nope there is still a BIK. The fact that the client or your company is paying them is irrelevant. The simple fact is that your visit to darkest Snowdonia is as essential part of your permanent job and therefore a Benefit in Kind.

That is the insanity of it as its currently proposed... Even individual meetings are hard to justify under what is proposed..

[billybiro]

WFH is the golden bargaining chip now. clients won't had over extra £££ but may be more flexible with something that doesn't cost them any more. Especially if they are in the ar$e end of nowhere!

You'd think that would be the case, wouldn't you?

Unfortunately, this won't work out for the same reason that most companies who have "workers" (be they permies or contractors) working on a computer all day long could easily save themselves a fortune in rent, utility costs etc. by simply allowing everyone to work remotely. They could do this today and could have been doing it for many years now.

The vast majority don't do this, of course, as there's still that fear and distrust amongst most "managers" that they need to see you physically working, a "bum-on-a-seat". This is largely due to the fact that most are so poor at actually managing that they can only manage that which they can see and thus "feel" that they have control over.

[Ticktock]

Just started a gig last week at my highest rate yet - and having been giving some planning docs for the project found that the client was forced to reduce their budget for my role, otherwise it would have been stupendous.

As for what happens next year, I'll wait and see. Divi tax is a "meh". OK, I'll end up paying a bit more tax than I used to, but I can live with that. T&S may be more of an issue, however in the past I've had contracts where I've WFH, then recharged travel costs when having to visit the office so this could be an option. As these are expenses incurred by MyCo, paid by MyCo (Corp Credit / Debit card) and then invoiced for by MyCo these are not paid to me and I'd hope this would mean no BIK.

Where there is no WFH at all (some clients have had the opinion that everyone should be sat at a desk all day) then I'd be looking at distance / cost, whether to soak these up, increase the rate or tell the client to take a running jump.

[VectraMan]

Aye Trouble is JSA is only £74 a week!

But it is WFH.

[DimPrawn]

Aware of that. Luckily, current client manager also sees it this way but not all do. A lot will look at what you're getting as the contractor which leads to very little sympathy if you moan about tax.

Moaning about tax is for the pub, home and CUK only.

Simples.

[psychocandy]

Permies cost twice their gross salary to the client. Cost of a permie and contractor over the longer term is not that different.

You think your pension, holidays, sickness, maternity/paternity, employers NI is free to the client?

Aware of that. Luckily, current client manager also sees it this way but not all do. A lot will look at what you're getting as the contractor which leads to very little sympathy if you moan about tax.

[DimPrawn]

Plus costs of recruitment / redundancy / sex discrimination / race discrimination / unfair dismissal

That costs a fortune in itself. Someone starts (recruitment cost £50K), then claims discrimination (after having 6 months off on full pay with "stress") and gets a huge payout, usually many times their annual salary, plus legal costs to the client. Happens all the time in big companies.

Contractor, hire and fire, no rights, use and abuse. Client quids in everytime.