Freelancing

Once again I come asking for questions. Crap at work is making me to think about leaving and going freelance. Apparently my hourly rate is £130 an hour, alot of this is a result of incredible overheads I should point out I see a fraction of this. We're currently paying a company to write device drivers (something we usually do when we're not too busy) for approx. £50 an hour, it takes them 2 weeks to write one. I can usually knock one out in an afternoon.

Also, the possibility of some other work outside the company may become available soon which, under the current regime would constitute a conflict of interest. What I'd like to know is, what are legal/tax implications of going freelance? Any comments?

I've been freelancing for a while, but since I'm in the U.S., tax ramifications won't apply.

I'm not really qualified to comment on the legal side except to suggest that insurance is your friend here. However, on the tax side, I'm even less qualified! That said, the first thing you do is get a good book-keeper or accountant. DON'T try to do self-assessment tax returns yourself, you'll screw yourself out of a lot of money in almost every case. The tax laws are insanely complicated and change every year! My book-keeper saved me over 3 kiloquid my first year, which will pay his fee for years after he retires

Remember, being self employed is almost exactly like being employed, except a lot of the time you work longer and harder and make less money. When it all goes well, though, at the very least you end up with a lot more freedom than a real job allows

pca

If you are talking about doing it full time, as opposed to just doing some extra work on the side, they you need to thing about whether it makes sense to form your own limited company.

Most IT contractors/freelancers in the UK end up with their own limited company (or using an "umbrella" company run by someone else). There are two main reasons for this.

The first is that most corporate clients and contracting agencies prefer to deal with a ltd company than an individual. Some will only deal with a ltd company.

The second main reason is that you can register for VAT.

The downside of a ltd company is extra paper work and having to pay the employers side of National Insurance. You will need and accountant if you go down the ltd company route.

There is some useful stuff here:

http://www.contractoruk.com/first_timers/index.html

(though they do pretty much assume that you will be taking the ltd company route)

When I started freelancing/contracting 9 years ago all my work came through agencies, thankfully now I have built up enough customers that for the last two years I have found all my work myself.

Looks like some reading is in order, my meeting went well although it looks like it might take while to get things sorted.