Off-payroll rules and controlling persons proposal threaten the flexibility of contractors and clients
New off-payroll rules coming into force in September and the controlling persons proposals set to become law in April 2013 are unworkable complications threatening contractor flexibility, public sector service delivery and the UK’s global competitiveness, contends ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin. The frameworks underpinning the new rules are flawed and unnecessary, as legislation already exists in the form of IR35 to tackle disguised employment in the public and private sectors, he adds. “The government would be better off focusing on effectively implementing the legislation it already has and the ten years of case law, rather than introducing new rules that won’t work.” More...
Financial IT contractor prospects buoyed by 'stabilisation' of City jobs market
Financial IT contractors prospects turned slightly positive as the jobs market in London’s financial sector stabilised in July. The latest Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor reports that the number of financial jobs actually fell by 2% in July when compared to June, and are 48% lower than in July 2011. But Morgan McKinley Financial Services chief operating officer Andrew Evans suggests the market is ‘stabilising’. “During the summer months we typically see the entire recruitment market slow down and with the UK remaining in recession, we wouldn’t expect this pattern to change,” he explains. “However a 2% drop could be viewed as a stabilisation in the market, all things considered.” More...
Contractors turning to friends and family to secure work
A third of contractors used their personal network of friends and family to secure their most recent contract role, with 80% starting a new contract search in the final two months of the contract. That’s according to research by ContractJobs.com and FPS Group, which also shows that 70% of contractors use job boards to find new contracts and 42% use a recruitment agency. “The results show that recruitment agencies are still the first port of call for contractors looking for a new position,” says FPS Group’s chief financial officer Matthew Huddleston. “But worryingly, contractors are taking risks in securing their next role by leaving their search until the last minute.” More...
Online demand growth in core contracting sectors stabilises
Online demand growth in the core contracting disciplines of IT and engineering was broadly stable in July. This is according to July’s Monster Employment Index, which also shows year-on-year falls in online demand for contractors across the construction (-12%), marketing (-12%) and management and consulting (-6%) sectors. The headline index of online worker demand also declined by 3% year-on-year, registering what Monster describes as the “first overall negative growth trend in 30 months”. More...
Three quarters of private sector firms use contractors: CIPD survey
Contractors can be found in 74% of private sector firms, rising to 78% of organisations when the public and third sectors are included. The results of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) latest Labour Market Outlook also suggest that the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) have changed client behaviour. A fifth of all clients will only hire contractors for up to 12 weeks, and this rises to 25% in the construction sector. More...
Contractors pay less tax now than before the recession
Contractors are paying, on average, less tax now as a proportion of income compared with before the recession in 2008. According to an analysis by accountant UHY Hacker Young, mean incomes have risen by 11.4% during the recession whereas the effective tax rate, which is the proportion of an individual’s income taken in tax, has fallen from 18.4% to 17.7%. Rob Durrant-Walker, tax manager at UHY Hacker Young, explains: “For the vast majority of taxpayers the effective tax rate fell during the financial crisis.” However, he adds that these figures don’t account for increases in VAT and other indirect taxes.
Contractors could ride the crests of waves created by technologies at or nearing their tipping points
IT and technology contractors seeking to identify the next hot sources of new contracts can use technology analyst Gartner’s 2012 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies. The report evaluates where current and emerging technologies lie on the ‘Hype Cycle’, a tool contractors can use to determine the ‘tipping point’, when emerging technologies could turn into contracts. The fastest-moving technologies include big data, 3D printing, activity streams, internet TV, near field communication (NFC) payment, cloud computing and media tablets. More...
UK self-employment reaches another record high
The trend to choose self-employment, such as contracting and freelancing, over employment or joblessness has continued for another quarter, according to the latest Labour Market Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). An additional 39,000 self-employed people joined the flexible workforce in the three months to June, bringing the UK self-employed total to 4.2m. Overall, the labour market recorded another positive quarter, with unemployment falling by 46,000. More...
Manufacturing contracts to increase as production is ‘re-shored’
Contractors look set to benefit from increasing number of new contracts in the manufacturing sector as companies ‘re-shore’ their production to improve supply chain performance. Engineering employers’ organisation EEF explains that the ‘re-shoring’ phenomenon involves UK manufacturers bringing production back in-house or turning to local manufacturers. It says this trend has been partly driven by global supply chains having been disrupted as a result of natural disasters. An EEF survey of UK manufacturers revealed that “two fifths of companies were bringing some production back in house, and one quarter increased their use of local suppliers”.
Contractors who have failed to submit latest tax returns face fines up to £1200
Contractors who have still not submitted their 2010/2011 tax returns to HMRC face fines of up to £1,200 as the taxman begins its latest penalty letter campaign. HMRC’s director general for personal tax, Stephen Banyard, says: “We want the returns, not the penalties. This year, half a million more people have filed their return – which means we are issuing 44% fewer penalties.” Contractors receiving a late-filing penalty can appeal against it if they think they have a reasonable excuse for not sending their tax return.