Reply to post: Vote With Feet

Vote With Feet

I don't get what the big deal is - if the client, regardless of whether they are in the public of private sector are pushing you by contractual terms of work practices inside IR35, you hand in your notice and walk away. It really is as simple as that.

Let's not forget that the vast majority of high end contractors are commanding their contract rate because the demand for their level of expertise is proportional to it. Or to put it differently, if your client is making themselves uncompetitive, you go find one that isn't. Seriously guys, we are contractors, we don't do the whole "OMG what if I lose my job" concept because this inevitably happens every 3-18 months. Losing key staff in this way is a risk for the client to deal with.

As for IR35 "employee liable for employer's taxes" nonsense, there are two approaches worth seriously considering:

1) Don't be the only practising director. We have all worked with people with a similar skill set over the years or decades we have been contracting. Maybe we even went to school or university with some of them and kept in touch. So jointly set up a consultancy and never worry about IR35 again, not least because your substitution capability has just moved from merely plausible to extremely actionable.

2) Take a remote working permanent job for a US based I.T. consultancy. An increasing number of them these days look for remote workers at US salaries (which in many areas of I.T. are roughly in line with UK contract rates). Yes, you are somewhat vulnerable to the $/£ exchange rate fluctuations, but even at worst it's still pretty good. You are typically required to make 1-2 trips to US or other part of the world every year for corporate meetings or similar events, but since you're now an employee, the company picks up the tab for all of those travel costs. And the most hilarious thing about this is that when you work for a US company, you pay all the regular employee taxes, but the one thing that IR35 insanely clobbers you for - the employer's NI - is not applicable, because the employer isn't a UK based. So in a tremendous twist of irony, HMRC _still_ don't get those 13.8% they were angling to get their hands on.