4 ms·

> For genuine contractors who are working with decent clients and obviously aren't disguised employees the rules haven't changed and neither have the tax obliga

> For genuine contractors who are working with decent clients and obviously aren't disguised employees the rules haven't changed and neither have the tax obligations. The problem is that whether someone is genuine or not is no longer relevant, because you may be genuine, but risk averse client says you are not and there is nothing you can do about it. Every single genuine contractor I know now works in-scope of IR35. They pay their business costs out of their deemed salary, which is insane. > The solution is not to work with bad clients who try to dump their obligations on you! That's not a solution if the pool of "good" clients is getting smaller and smaller. If you now have much longer downtime because it is much more difficult to find a "good" client - say when it used to take a couple of weeks or even days, now it takes months - it makes the business no longer viable.

Silhouette 4y ago
Every single genuine contractor I know now works in-scope of IR35. They pay their business costs out of their deemed salary, which is insane. That is a silly situation I agree. But it's a situation that perpetuates in part because too many contractors tolerate it. If you read the stats published by some of the more open agencies the majority of contractors are still strongly preferring outside IR35 contracts and the clients who still have blanket umbrella policies are finding it harder to hire. Some of the big names who pay high enough rates will get away with it because of those rates of course but further down the list things aren't looking so great apparently. If that pressure keeps up then eventually the ones who determine status properly (and increase rates accordingly for inside IR35 work via umbrellas) will be the ones that attract the good people.
- sdnas211 4y ago
  > That is a silly situation I agree. But it's a situation that perpetuates in part because too many contractors tolerate it. A sizeable proportion of contractors I used to work with simply removed themselves from the market when the changes were introduced. Many of them retired early, and one retrained as a plasterer. I only tolerate it because I have a mortgage to pay. I'm not willing to take a 50% pay cut to go perm, or a ~20% pay cut for the few contracts outside IR35 that I'm offered. The rates on those used to be significantly higher than before the changes. Speaking to a lot of recruiters over the last few years, we have noticed wage compression in the market. The bottom end has been brought up quite substantially, the top end has dropped.

Silhouette 4y ago

Every single genuine contractor I know now works in-scope of IR35. They pay their business costs out of their deemed salary, which is insane. That is a silly situation I agree. But it's a situation that perpetuates in part because too many contractors tolerate it. If you read the stats published by some of the more open agencies the majority of contractors are still strongly preferring outside IR35 contracts and the clients who still have blanket umbrella policies are finding it harder to hire. Some of the big names who pay high enough rates will get away with it because of those rates of course but further down the list things aren't looking so great apparently. If that pressure keeps up then eventually the ones who determine status properly (and increase rates accordingly for inside IR35 work via umbrellas) will be the ones that attract the good people.

sdnas211 4y ago
> That is a silly situation I agree. But it's a situation that perpetuates in part because too many contractors tolerate it. A sizeable proportion of contractors I used to work with simply removed themselves from the market when the changes were introduced. Many of them retired early, and one retrained as a plasterer. I only tolerate it because I have a mortgage to pay. I'm not willing to take a 50% pay cut to go perm, or a ~20% pay cut for the few contracts outside IR35 that I'm offered. The rates on those used to be significantly higher than before the changes. Speaking to a lot of recruiters over the last few years, we have noticed wage compression in the market. The bottom end has been brought up quite substantially, the top end has dropped.