Contracting & Freelancing News
When you take the plunge in to contracting or freelancing, you also become a business. To successfully promote yourself you have to think like you’re running your own small business. Finding and guaranteeing work can often take precedent over other key issues contractors’ face, such as managing your own accounts. Here at Gorilla Accounting, we have
One of the biggest societal changes of the last five years has been a growth in contracting, freelancing and self-employment. One of the underlying trends behind this explosion in the volume of small companies and sole-traders is how large organisations are seeking a dynamic critical mass, a lower cost-base and that ability to expand and contract
Chancellor George Osborne’s plans to ‘reduce the costs of employment, ease the tax burden on businesses and stimulate investment’ is looking good for contractors and freelancers. There are a number of changes that come in to play from 6th April 2015 that contractors and freelancers should be particularly aware of: The personal allowance will increase from
In this month’s Budget announcement, Chancellor George Osborne publicised plans to digitise paper tax returns for the majority of the UK population by 2020. The plans have however already ran in to issues – IT concerns, security threats and software glitches have already posed serious questions. Under the new plan, 15 million contractors and other self-assessors
Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. They have recently told their current IT contractors that they must take a 15% reduction in pay or be forced to leave. Shell have argued that due to market volatility, they
If this time 10 years ago you would have asked an IT contractor where the best place to find work is, 9 out of 10 would have said London, no questions asked. However if you ask them now, taking in to account the rise of digital and technology driven businesses in the North, many IT contractors
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have this week announced new rules which mean promoters described as ‘high-risk’ must make clear to clients that they are being monitored by the authority. Promoters of tax avoidance can now be subject to financial and reputational penalties that aim to stamp out arrangements designed to minimise tax. ‘Conduct Notices’ will
The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) are calling for better guidelines when it comes to determining employment status, according to their latest report. At current there a number of different tests that determine whether you are self-employed or not for tax purposes, which this reports addresses. There isn’t a definition of self-employment in law, meaning businesses,
The oil and gas Activity Survey 2015 has concluded that oil and gas contractors in the UK could have a long term future in the North Sea if conditions are made right. The yearly survey published by Oil and Gas UK, has said that if the right conditions are created for further exploration and investment through
When you take the plunge in to contracting or freelancing you also become a business, to successfully promote yourself you have to think like you’re running your own small business. You are fully self-reliant on finding work for yourself, so selling yourself to potential clients and recruiters is key. One of the issues many independent contractors
There are numerous advantages to being a contractor, choosing your own hours, higher rates of pay and being your own boss, but a major disadvantage is securing mortgage funding. Below is a list of tips to help you: 1. Use a specialist mortgage broker The reality is that most lenders do not understand the contracting market and
HMRC has publicised its plans to make changes to the way records are reported for recruitment companies. New regulations published last week will now mean that all agencies will need to provide the Revenue with details of all ‘workers’ they are involved with. Recruitment companies will need to inform HMRC of information on contractors employed via
