Contracting News

As able as it may be at causing belligerent responses, HMRC won’t be keyboard-warriored into changing procedure backed by statute.

The only certainty of the ‘will-she-won’t-she’ pensions raid furore is the wisdom in maxing out your allowance now, while it remains generous and intact.

Survey shows not even one in three contractors agree with what end-clients say matters most when workers contemplate a freelance tech role.

July’s REC Report on Jobs shows the ‘subdued’ IT contractor market, with a lack of confidence and renewals, as approaching a grim milestone.

A sceptical agent’s Excel test is a sign of things to come -- but don’t take it personally, our job is to work out if what you say about your skills is true.

The Growth & Skills Levy is one of a few steps in the right direction. Ministers understanding not everyone’s a permie is key to avoid taking us back to square one.

A rethink on limited company workers is underway by large and pragmatic end-users, even if it is still shy of a policy shift.

A tiered evolution of Mini-Umbrella Companies is here, with arrangements as opaque as the consequences for contractors who find themselves embroiled.

Engaging contractors inside IR35 might still be all the rage. Yet the economic impacts are very real, and may even be unsustainable.

AI bosses question the intelligence of canning a £1.3billion computing investment, aimed at keeping Britain out of the ‘tech slow lane.’

Treasury exchequer secretary James Murray is the new broom to sweep away the wrongs of Lucy Frazer and her rotten Tory government. And 131 parliamentarians are there to see that he does exactly that.

Freelancer and Contractor Services Association CEO Chris Bryce on what new chancellor Rachel Reeves should and shouldn’t unveil on October 30th.

Top advisers put UK IT contracting on warning, even as they call Labour to replace the Tories’ OPW rules with ‘old’ IR35 of 2000.

Software firm tells ContractorUK it gave free coffee and snacks to MSPs, cloud marketplaces and telcos, but not customers. Or at least it tried to.

Limited companies is where this new government should concentrate simplification efforts, because CT itself isn’t the problem.

A threshold increase in April has still probably not been taken advantage of by every eligible contractor on under £80k.

If the best time for the Tories to realise IR35 reform has been damaging was yesterday, the next best time is today -- as the opposition.

The Points of View presenter has his own point of view thrown out by the FTT, cueing up a full blown hearing into his IR35 status.

IT contractors may know it as a fintech company, but an arrangement HMRC says to withdraw from is among six of the newly ‘named and shamed.’

Some 8.5million Windows devices with Blue Screen of Death reminds companies they can’t always know who they’ll need from IT, with what tech skills, or when.

Scratching beneath the surface of what Sir Kier Starmer’s new government probably wants Single Worker Status to achieve.

Bolstering economic growth across the UK bodes well for IT freelancers -- we must now hope for differentiation, collaboration and frankly, more contract skills support.

The new Employment Rights Bill to ‘upgrade’ worker protections is unsettling the many non-inside IR35, who are workers but don’t want protecting.

Tech teams must balance AI use with GDPR compliance, or risk possible repercussions under data protection rules.

Little wonder 60% of the £39.8bn tax gap is down to small biz, what with IR35 reform; going ‘LTD’ because a mate told you to, and the HMRC disconnect.

‘Political noise’ blamed for hirers hitting the hiring brakes, with the screeching most painfully felt by IT operations, helpdesk, and software development candidates.

Imagining a world without the Intermediaries legislation (reformed or original), quickly reminds us that it’s probably ‘better the devil you know.’

What’s happened to TV’s Adrian Chiles, and what seven things contractors can do to avoid a similar fate. 

APSCo tells ContractorUK what the professional contract labour market should make of Sir Keir Starmer as the new PM.

We’ve got an anti-Tory result with no great enthusiasm for Keir Starmer. That’s what the people are really saying - and it’s a verdict IT freelancers will find hard to disagree with.

Sir Keir Starmer ejects Rishi Sunak from No 10, vowing to ‘restore Britain to the service of working people.'

As a new political dawn breaks, let’s not be rose-tinted about the future of IT contracting under the architects of IR35, but it’s clear a bum deal is now behind us.

Contractor Voice on HMCs – being brought out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Whichever party wins on July 4th a PPC pledge by the Liberal Democrats is one to lose, if the UK really wants to eradicate late payments.

Why Rachel Reeves saying ‘we will take on the tax dodgers’ sounds good in principle, but also has small companies quaking in their (HMRC-compliant) boots.

An already ticking dormancy clock for some PSCs should now sound deafening, due to a likely change of colour at Number 10 on July 5th.

A timely excavation of one of the (crumbling) cornerstones of late payment policy in the UK, which is meant to help contractors get paid on time.

Signing a commonsense commitment (following this government’s nonsensical approach), is the first step to getting your future MP to do their bit to right a wrong ruining 40,000 lives.

An exploration of getting the taxman totally off your back if you max out on contributions.

Hays finds that despite many feeling apprehensive about AI, most IT contractors will undergo Artificial Intelligence training -- before it ‘really takes hold.’