Re: ...cry me a river!
You're quite right, contracting is a piece of piss, we skip merrily from contract to contract while money rains down from the heavens and falls at our feet.
Which begs the question, why are you still a permie? Seriously, it sounds shit the way you paint it, c'mon, I'll put you in touch with some good recruiters and an accountant.
You KNOW it's not as easy as you make out, you yourself have probably served a contractor their notice and asked them to leave (in reality we get no notice period), or canceled a contract a few days before it was due to start..
Some other things to consider: finish your contract in November? Well, put your feet up because no one is hiring until mid January now.
Not been paid on time? Have fun with THAT, there was a period this year where I didn't get paid for four months because of an issue with the clients finance department, contractor payments were not a priority to resolve. What comeback did I have? Put a few % tax on as a late fee? Court and ensure the end of my contract and loose any repeat work from that client? Nope I fell back on the money I had to wait. Now Mr permie, what would you do if your pay was two days late? I'll bet you'd be in to your payroll department and it would be resolved pretty quick.
The guys claiming to be getting an effective vat rate in the range that you quoted are the ones that are not making provisions for down time, taking all profits out of the company and then panicking at the end of their contract.
I'd also point out, it's not a fiddle to follow the law and pay the minimum amount of tax.
In fact I'd go as far as to say if you have any pre-tax benefits from your employer, including pensions, student loan payments or childcare vouchers you are a hipocrite as you are also employing legal "fiddles" to reduce your tax bill.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
