It’s ironic that the reason why many women, in particular, choose to go freelance or become a consultant is because they have children. (According to IPSE, the number of new mothers choosing to go freelance work rather than ...
I'm not sure if it is only HMRC that is exempt - I have had a similar experience with being approached for other public sector departments. In this instance it was the Ministry of Justice. This is what was sent by the recruitment agent a...
Dear Contractor Weekly, while I completely feel that IR35 is a counterproductive policy to help the Conservative Government further turn hard working members of the public into cash cows, I believe that any policy should be applicable to ev...
There’s a misconception that being your own boss is all sunshine and rainbows, that self-employed people sail through the days without having a superior to report to. It’s true that when you work for yourself you don’t have to deal wi...
MPs and journalists have been reporting a sudden “PR offensive” from HMRC following 75 MPs protesting about the Loan Charge in Parliament. HMRC have written a short – and misleading – letter to all the MPs and have now published a...
A group representing contractors and freelance workers in the UK have taken the unprecedented step of calling on HMRC to set up a 24-hour Suicide Hotline to deal with ever increasing volumes of calls from people reporting suicidal thought...
We’re all familiar with Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, ‘all men are created equal’. But how much do we really believe in that? Surely a statement so profound is a little outdated for today’s society, in more ways than one. For a...
Contractors play a very important role within the technology industry, especially within specialist sectors. The demand for contractors within the technology sector c...
I am a professional IT contractor who worked and lived very happily using the ‘prescribed’ and accepted method of operating through a limited company with few breaks from 1987 until 1999. Coinciding with Labour coming into power, IR35...
Smart phones have become an essential tool in business and they can be particularly useful for freelancers because of the unparalleled level of flexibility and freedom they offer in terms of portability and remote connectivity. There are...
How much is an hour of your time worth? If you invoice by the hour, you might be tempted to quote your contracted hourly rate in response to that question; if you invoice by the day, you might estimate the number of hours you work and div...
As a contractor, time is money. Literally, if you’re too sick to work, you don’t get paid. It’s as simple as that. And that’s why many contractors should have been disturbed to hear the comments made in January of this year by the c...
As Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson famously sang back in 1992, “The best things in life are free”. Never has that sentiment been more pertinent than for the present reality of IT contractors and freelancers, when capital expenditure i...
As a contractor, it is highly likely that you will find yourself “on the bench” at some point. And it can be a tough time. Trust me, I know from my own experience. The real secret to being “on the bench”, though, is to follow some...
It’s 7am. I promised myself an early start so I grudgingly slide out of bed, don my faithful – and slightly musty, it has to be said - dressing gown, and pad across the hall in my slippers to the study. The cold glow of the monitor su...
