Comments on: SAP contractor, 54, forced out of the market on cost

By: Dave Clayton

Dave Clayton — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:58:10 +0000

Hi,
Whilst I do not do SAP, more Oracle ERP, I can agree with almost everything that has been said.

Because of COVID & then ‘blanket’ IR35, I have not worked for nearly 2 years. (I am not an employee and never will be!). I will never, ever work for an Umbrella outfit. Hence, I am happy to do very little, given that I no longer have a mortgage. The HMRC get next to nothing from me, and the industry loses a lot of needed skills. In addition I have no intention of working for the same money that I worked for pre year 2000. That is becuase they expect us to work at the same rate as off-shore (who pay no UK tax!). Somebody in the revenue needs to engage their brain…

One interesting point, I nearly interviewed for a SMALL consultancy. End client was HMRC. They (HMRC) simply cannot get the people that they want INSIDE-IR35. They need the small company exemption to enable this…LOL!

Grrr…

By: Andrea Allsopp

Andrea Allsopp — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 09:29:04 +0000

Nick, so much of this resonates. It’s been hard to explain to agents that my “go anywhere, for the same rate” service is no more, well not if they want to hire me inside IR35. I found councils in the outposts of the UK to be the biggest losers, forced to only offer roles within IR35 and with no increase on rates.
All of this has been manna to the agencies who mop up the gaps with, as you say, off shore staff. This has been a second assault on my business model, the first was when the agencies moved from supplying staff for client projects to running the entire programme. One boss told me it was easier because it was “one throat to strangle.” Easier, but not necessarily successful. I get a lot of work fixing what didn’t happen correctly, if at all, often hired directly by the client. Buy cheap, buy twice…..or is that once bitten, twice shy.

By: Kendo Nagasaki

Kendo Nagasaki — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 09:58:56 +0000

I’ve been contracting for 25 years and sympathise completely with Ed.
I have become thoroughly disenchanted by the imposition of IR35.
Contractors were once valued for their superior knowledge and experience, their their non-standard approach to the working day and their ability to bring in projects on time and in budget.
They usually paid CORPORATION TAX through their ltd company, were registered for VAT , and paid DIVIDEND tax & SA 302 Tax – so it is not as if they were not contributing to the economy.
In general, HMRC staff do not care about loss of revenue, IMO they are entirely blinkered by the need to impress their immediate superiors.
They are the most wasteful government department of all – the COVID LOAN system is a prime example – and are accountable to no one
but the Chancellor.
They will not care that IR35 status is randomly determined (even by their own software solution) and has resulted in an overall reduction in UK tax revenue.
Nor that most of the much heralded “additional revenue” income will now not materialise as it is moved offshore or lost completely by the involuntary closing down of thousands of small businesses.
As an IR35 contractor, I have to pay umbrella companies a fee – generally to mismanage an invoicing/tax system that I had streamlined over the years as a ltd company.
I now have to pay EMPLOYEE & EMPLOYER NI contributions , an APPRENTICE LEVY, am involuntarily enrolled into a less than effective pension plan, deduct Holiday Pay from my weekly/monthly salary and pay Basic Rate tax @ 20% with no allowance.
The only saving grace is that I can still pay into a private SIPP from the umbrella company – which I could do before IR35 as a Ltd company- and that now offsets 30% of my taxable income.
So were exactly is the benefit to the country of IR35, except for Umbrella companies?
It makes you wonder about the efficacy of people in Parliament/Government departments as their short term ideological policies often fail to produce the benefits as stated. GRRRR!!!!

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 09:04:30 +0000

Nick
I worked at C&L same time as you and worked on the BBC SAP programme – one of the largest SAP projects in the country at the time. I also remember Ed Straw, a maverick parter (no desk in his office – just sofas. ) I have also been contracting since leaving C&L and totally agree with your sentiments,