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I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. I expect they probably bill avg 10-15 days per month at that rate. Most contractors like them in the UK that I kn

I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. I expect they probably bill avg 10-15 days per month at that rate. Most contractors like them in the UK that I know operate this way most of the time.

elliekelly 4y ago
And there are lots of expenses.
- trhoad 4y ago
  Contracted for a few years. Almost zero expenses (a new laptop, an accountant, some PL insurance).
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    Not an accountant, but I believe if you’re working on a side-project you can expense a lot (essentially, the side project is just another service your company offers) and thus you can “expense” (not technically expensing because it’s paid by the company in the first place) a lot of stuff - hardware, cloud bills, software licenses, etc.
  - kinnth 4y ago
    Agree with this. Contractor expenses are low. You can run a lot more through your biz if you want (travel, food, computers) but over the long term i'd say it\s 80-90% profit.
trhoad 4y ago
Most (all) the contractors I know can bill £500 per day outside IR35 pretty much indefinitely.
phphphphp 4y ago
£500/day is the rate for software engineering contractors in the UK that guarantees a continuous stream of work: it would be trivial for someone to bill 100% of billable days in a year at that rate. I don't know anybody who only bills 10 - 15 days per month, I personally bill ~21 on average per month and I am always fully booked (I turn down work). All you need is a profile on LinkedIn and you'll get a constant stream of offers at £500/day -- no reputation or relationships required. Anybody billing 10 - 15 days per month is doing so out of choice.
- noodlesUK 4y ago
  I'm not suggesting they are unable to bill 20 days per month if they want to, I would say they probably choose not to on average across the whole year. I certainly don't like working absolutely every weekday, and I take time off periodically. Working a bit less is one of the huge perks of being a contractor.
- Silhouette 4y ago
  £500/day is the rate for software engineering contractors in the UK that guarantees a continuous stream of work That might have been true pre-COVID but is even that rate a guarantee of much in a post-COVID world with the economic uncertainty we have now and so much pressure to do everything inside IR35? So many of the offers being made in the UK contract market now fall through and so many of the gigs are relatively short that even if you take a rate where you can work "continuously" you could actually be losing 1-2 months out of the year just from things like delayed starts, having several rounds of looking for the next gig in the same year, having "safe" contracts fall through unexpectedly, aborting a "done deal" that was advertised as outside IR35 but it turned out the client or recruiter had no idea how IR35 actually worked, etc. We've been talking about this a lot in my network this year as it seems to be a recurring source of irritation for those who are still trying to work genuine freelance and outside IR35 contract gigs. A reasonable estimate for this year might be that 80% of gigs people have been approached about on LinkedIn or seen posted by agency recruiters never actually hired anyone and the time taken for a freelancer or contractor to find their next real gig is up maybe 50-100% compared to a couple of years ago.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    Python contractor here - in the current market, 500£/day is low enough that you can still bill the entire year if you’re not too picky as to what kind of work you take - just like the parent post, I have to turn down work constantly. Indeed, the IR35 debacle and general downturn given the current events have put a damper on business, but at 500/day it’s still doable.
    - Silhouette 4y ago
EddySchauHai 4y ago
Seems perfectly reasonable to me, maybe 1 month off a year. All my UK contractor friends make over £550pd and have work whenever they want
rad_gruchalski 4y ago
> I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. And for all good reasons. They have to pay taxes. So yes, they change £500/day but they’re on progressive tax rate with a maximum of what, 38%? At least that’s what it was some years back when I was based in the UK. Hitting that tax rate in fourth month of a fiscal year easily.

I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. I expect they probably bill avg 10-15 days per month at that rate. Most contractors like them in the UK that I know operate this way most of the time.

elliekelly 4y ago

And there are lots of expenses.

trhoad 4y ago
Contracted for a few years. Almost zero expenses (a new laptop, an accountant, some PL insurance).
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Not an accountant, but I believe if you’re working on a side-project you can expense a lot (essentially, the side project is just another service your company offers) and thus you can “expense” (not technically expensing because it’s paid by the company in the first place) a lot of stuff - hardware, cloud bills, software licenses, etc.
- kinnth 4y ago
  Agree with this. Contractor expenses are low. You can run a lot more through your biz if you want (travel, food, computers) but over the long term i'd say it\s 80-90% profit.

trhoad 4y ago

Most (all) the contractors I know can bill £500 per day outside IR35 pretty much indefinitely.

phphphphp 4y ago

£500/day is the rate for software engineering contractors in the UK that guarantees a continuous stream of work: it would be trivial for someone to bill 100% of billable days in a year at that rate. I don't know anybody who only bills 10 - 15 days per month, I personally bill ~21 on average per month and I am always fully booked (I turn down work). All you need is a profile on LinkedIn and you'll get a constant stream of offers at £500/day -- no reputation or relationships required. Anybody billing 10 - 15 days per month is doing so out of choice.

noodlesUK 4y ago
I'm not suggesting they are unable to bill 20 days per month if they want to, I would say they probably choose not to on average across the whole year. I certainly don't like working absolutely every weekday, and I take time off periodically. Working a bit less is one of the huge perks of being a contractor.
Silhouette 4y ago
£500/day is the rate for software engineering contractors in the UK that guarantees a continuous stream of work That might have been true pre-COVID but is even that rate a guarantee of much in a post-COVID world with the economic uncertainty we have now and so much pressure to do everything inside IR35? So many of the offers being made in the UK contract market now fall through and so many of the gigs are relatively short that even if you take a rate where you can work "continuously" you could actually be losing 1-2 months out of the year just from things like delayed starts, having several rounds of looking for the next gig in the same year, having "safe" contracts fall through unexpectedly, aborting a "done deal" that was advertised as outside IR35 but it turned out the client or recruiter had no idea how IR35 actually worked, etc. We've been talking about this a lot in my network this year as it seems to be a recurring source of irritation for those who are still trying to work genuine freelance and outside IR35 contract gigs. A reasonable estimate for this year might be that 80% of gigs people have been approached about on LinkedIn or seen posted by agency recruiters never actually hired anyone and the time taken for a freelancer or contractor to find their next real gig is up maybe 50-100% compared to a couple of years ago.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Python contractor here - in the current market, 500£/day is low enough that you can still bill the entire year if you’re not too picky as to what kind of work you take - just like the parent post, I have to turn down work constantly. Indeed, the IR35 debacle and general downturn given the current events have put a damper on business, but at 500/day it’s still doable.
  - Silhouette 4y ago

EddySchauHai 4y ago

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, maybe 1 month off a year. All my UK contractor friends make over £550pd and have work whenever they want

rad_gruchalski 4y ago

> I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. And for all good reasons. They have to pay taxes. So yes, they change £500/day but they’re on progressive tax rate with a maximum of what, 38%? At least that’s what it was some years back when I was based in the UK. Hitting that tax rate in fourth month of a fiscal year easily.