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OT: Paging the EKS
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Help.
I'm officially unemployed, and although I have no pressing need to get
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Nothing like kicking a man whilst he's down eh?
Tell you what, send your good lady over here to the sunshine and I'll
comfort her for you. Howzat?
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work straightaway, an intriguing offer has been made by a company I
know.
They want me to bid on a chunk of design / development / documentation
work.
So:
Daily rate? It's in That London, if that helps.
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I guess you'll need to bid a complete project timescale, inc hourly
rate. But Lundun, *shrug*, depends what skills are required to be able
to guesstimate.
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Given that this company has offered you the job, presumably they
a) already know you
b) believe that you know what you're doing
hopefully they've offered it to you directly rather than through an
agency. If so then I'd take the market rate for a similar job (same
skills, in That London) as can be ascertained by either phoning an
agency or two, or looking through jobserve. Add the 10%-20% that the
agency won't be taking, since the company will be used to paying that
for EKS type people anyhow. Add a little bit since you know what
you're doing[1] and then ask for that.
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Interesting. A quick shuftie at Jobserve suggests this is worth doing.
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Assuming these are people you've worked with before think back to what
your daily charge-out used to be with your previous employer, they'll
probably be happy to pay something in the same ballpark, or wouldn't
have asked you.
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As much as you can get away with, obviously :). Sorry, can't help, I can
only advise on EKS rates for banks.
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Do I need to set a company up? If so, how?
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You don't need to. I did and found it was a huge PITA, if I do any EKS
now its under an umbrella company. Means I work within IR35 but I've
found I don't loose that much, so don't care.
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uk.consultants will give you even more views....
Unless the customer (or, usually, a recruitment slug in between you and the
customer) *needs* you to be limited for their own particular perverse
reasons, then, no, you don't need to be a limited company.
You can register for VAT as a sole trader, and the exact same threshold
applies (£64k/year compulsory registration, but you can register below that
- you also need to if you think you'll exceed £16k in one quarter - and
that's *turnover*, not profit). If you're only invoicing VAT-reg companies,
it's daft not to register - the paperwork's minimal if your accounts are up
to date, and you get the VAT back on any toys you put through the books.
Oops, sorry, essential business expenditure.
After accountancy costs, there's very little tax benefit these days in
being a one-man Ltd company, particularly if there's a chance you'll fall
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Sorry Ad but this just isn't good advice. An intelligent man working through
a Ltd company pays under 20% tax gross. The other pays 40%+. If you are
earning enough to care thats £10,000 and on upwards hard graft per annum.
But enough barrack room law and my own experiences, SJD are the experts.
WUN has been a WWS for a while, he will appreciate the extra month hols per
year!
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within IR35.
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Get a decent acountant and let them do it. Company formation is low
cost.
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Cheers, Hog's suggestion looks good.
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I would certainly do so - I've done it once without and I'm still paying
for it (it was in Germany where Ltd Cos require a lot of
capital). *Never* again.
Apart from the accountants that Hog recommended (who ring a faint bell),
I'm using an accountant recommended by Bear who seems to know his stuff
rather well. Ping me an email for details if interested.
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I used to be with some national advertised accountancy firm. All the
real work was done in India. They used to charge a fortune. Over £100
per month. Then I had a local accountant (Bristol) recommended to me.
Only £500 a year. He's also won two IR35 cases as part of a group of
independent accountants. So is also an expert.
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Any other gotchas?
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Transport? Backup in case of unforseen vans? If your own company then
you'll need a few types of insurance in case they decide to sue your
arse off.
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IR35 would be one such gotcha. Your decent accountant will be able to
advise you on this, but off the cuff I'd suggest taking your own kit
to the client site (laptop or whatever) or hopefully working from your
own office[2].
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Oh yes, they've already agreed I can do that.
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You probably want / need professional indemnity insurance.
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Hadn't thought of that, ta.
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If you're not dealing with an agency then it'd definitely be worth
giving the contract to someone with a clue to take a look at. Your
accountant either is or will know one of these people if you don't. If
you are dealing with an agency then you should probably still do
this,
YMMV.
[1] Or at least, they think you do.
[2] Which would very probably look like your living room or back
garden.
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OK you need to be a proper one person limited company. Get this right and
you pay half as much in taxes.
Don't feck about mate, go to:
sign up with them and let them do the rough stuff. They have an unbroken
winning record with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs
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