The inland revenue in there wisdom Have now decided that self-employed contractors (myself) are now no longer self employed, and have to go PAYE. All the same rules apply, supplying your own tools, transport, fuel, workwear etc... But you can now no longer claim them back at the end of the Tax year. Perishable hand tools, saws, tapes , drill bits ,plugs, screws, nails etc.. Cost me about £100+ a month. So now i have to price all these into the job-therefore putting up prices or cutting earnings. My earnings are at the moment(i'm working on the new cov stadium) now down by £134 a week (paye) and i still am entitled to the same benefits as when i was CIS... which is nowt. Short term contracts etc..

Secondly i have been looking around a lot of sites over the last month for work when i finish at cov. I have been on 11 different sites and everyone has been full to the rafters of East European workers, Polish, Russian, Latvian, Romanian and the usual Albanians and Bulgarians... I can get a job on these sites if i want to work 14 hours a day for £5 an hour like the immigrant workers, which is well not going to happen. I understand these workers, have to work and they do and are decent tradesmen, apart from the albanians/bulgarians.. But it is a disaster for the tradesmen in this country, who can't compete on that level. The labour agencys are making a killing as are the Subbys...I worked in Berlin for 3 years and had to leave as the same happend there.. Now all those workers in Germany who came in and took the work over, paid German tax's etc.. stayed on as they were entitled too, putting an enourmous strain on the german welfare system and i can see the sme happening here. Three weeks ago we gave a quote of £47000 for a double extension on a house and that was cutting the profit too the bone. A latvian contractor came in and cut it by £17000, got the work. How the hell do you compete with that..

 

Simple.

Wait until the Latvian has done his stuff and legged it with the £££.
Review the work done and point out to the home owner where the structural problems are and give him an estimation of how long it will be before his extension &/or house will collapse.

Then quote the original £47,000 plus 10 % to sort the problem out.

 

I wish it was that easy..

 

Can't you just set up a limited company and employ yourself? I thought this was what all the contractors were doing? I would go speak to a "good" accountant will cost you about £50 - £250 to set up the company and about £500 - £1000 per year for your accounts. you take the first £4000 on the companies payroll (tax free allowance) then take the rest of the money out of the company as a dividend (taxed at 19% up to a certain amount but I dont know what that is?) Although I guess HMCR will try to stop this soon as well :-( all your hand tools etc will go through the company so you wont be taxed on them either.

Please dont hold me to this info but it is roughly what I do every year, although my accountant sorts it all out for me!

 

I believe there's some sort of construction industry tax scheme which is the equivalent of IR35 for brickies, so no joy on the ltd. co front

 

I,ve been through this with my accountant and it is a difficult area, with the revenue making it up as they go along more or less.

 

i understand what your saying the company i work for has had to take on a lot of the CIS workers [this actually costs the companys thousands so they dont want to do it either]

also think about the workers on the pay role we get hammered every month for national insurance tax [granted we do get most of our PPE supplied but not other costs like petrol work cloths and other silly items what do add up] cast you mind back and think how much you have proberbly bulls***ed on your tax returns like we all proberly have] that also cost the tax man thousands every year, you youself have worked abroad proberly making it difficult for ppl in that country to get work as they look at you as an imigrant worker

as for the albanians/bulgarians if it wasnt for them and others the country would be on its knees in the construction industry as the majority of youth today do not believe in a physical days work and are all looking for jobs in IT [nothing wrong with that thou]

as for the pricing it is very hard to win work as you say some ppl will do a sub standard job and some customers seem to accept that so that will be a no win situation for a while to come

a good job is worth the money a sh** job isnt ppl will realise that

 

I was'nt pointing at the Albanians/Bulgarians as an easy target, but sites i work on the Indians(Asians) do a superb job and have been on the building for years.But they are fed up with them as well, the majority of them are lazy and second rate workers. The indian lads are loosing out to them as well and are not happy either. The pols, ruskys etc.. do a good job. But i doubt very much that the lack of ALBANIAN/BULGARIAN workers would bring the country to its knee's. The lack of Asian workers on site would be more of a concern.

 

This is true, but unfortunately the same is happening here. More and more projects seem to be getting outsourced to India, even tho as it well documented it can often be a false-economy doing this, depsite looking like a massive saving initially.

I dont really see what English workers have to offer thats so special anymore - if the Indians/East Europeans are as well qualified and will work for less, then in many cases it makes sense to employ them - and as soon as some companies start using them, the others have to follow suit so they can compete.

 

when has this happened?????

no change to me- not heard anything. Im self employed and it would be impossible to go paye due to the number of venues and infrequency of working at each one

Will be a cold day in hell before i go PAYE! Not a chance!

 

They tried to bring it in last year. It affects the construction industry mostly, the revenue have approached all firms and big subbys and said, more or less; That if you make anyone who works for you go paye, we will not look back into your tax. Greedy revenue, greedy sail you down the river subby.

 

Doesn't this just apply to working for one Contractor for an indeterminable period though? I don't think it's applicable when you are working for various ones.

 

yes i think this is true so to stop the 18 week rule i think as a firm in dunstable got done so they say for £30,000

 

Fraid the answers staring you in the face...

how can the latvian do it for that price??

if he can do it and uses the same materials,, where does the remainder go??

its called competition.. what you need to do is undercut everbody,,,

then you get loads of work, and then you can push up the prices...

joking aside.. welcome to jackboot NL they will control everbody... and if they can control they will smear and spin...

and wait until they bring in the work camps.... !!!



M

 

Maybe the majority of pi$$ taking builders/tradesmen ( Im not talking about all of you) will have a think a bit and realise you cant keep charging what you do. Competition is a healthy thing IMHO.

 

Oi cockstar, you are wanted in muppets

 

It's quite simple. Gordon Brown has run out of money and is having to borrow more and more. His "economic miracle" with "no more boom or bust" is starting to fall apart.
He is now trying to get more from wherever he can.

 

It seems, as suggested, as a similar approach to IR35 which hit all 'contractors' and used a sledge hammer to crack a nut. The thing is there were contractors who took the **** - they would work at a place for years so were as good as employees but they used to work the tax system to suit. It was a problem, but IR35 has swung the pendulum too far the other way it would seem. Get a good accountant but do not **** off the revenue. My father is a tax consultant and has advised for 35+ years. He deals with them day in day out and knows as well as anyone when to tell people that they need to start playing ball a little more before they have their ball taken away from them.

Simon

 

The CIS is a farce anyway and IMO a waste of Government money, the concept of it was to make sure income tax was being paid by contractors and subbies. It doesn't take into account when work is done for private householders and non-construction related businesses, so what the hell does it prove?

 

Youre assuming that the latvian is a poor tradesman.......compared to the local cowboys here, there is a good chance that his work will be kosher.