Anxieties have been proliferating in numerous Tweets, blogs and even news posts that a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR), which George Osborne may include in the March Budget, will be added to IR35 to police contractor employment status. However, according to a number of experts, the fears are totally unfounded. John Whiting, the director of the [...]
Global technology research giant Gartner has predicted that worldwide spending on information technology will rise by 3.7% in 2012, a forecast which may bring a cautious smile of optimism to the faces of many PAYE umbrella techies who make their livings through IT contracting. If the projection is borne out, IT spending will rise to [...]
Contractors working through umbrella companies may need to adjust to much shorter temporary contracts if soundings from a poll by APSCo are borne out. Thanks to the Agency Workers Regulations, which went live on 1st October last year, 29% of employers plan to end contracts before the twelve-week limit that entitles temporary staff to equal [...]
PAYE umbrella techies earning their daily bread through IT contracting may be interested in the latest trends in the IT skills market as recorded by Freelancer.com’s Fast 50 (a quarterly list of the 50 fastest growing IT jobs) for the last three months of 2011. HTML5 jobs soared by 41% on the previous quarter, hitting [...]
Banking and financial services contractors working through umbrella companies and limited companies alike have been through tough times over the last few months and the latest announcement from RBS of another job-axing round can hardly have cheered them. However, according to an industry expert, the news may not be as bad as it sounds. RBS [...]
PAYE umbrella contractors are occasionally asked by some recruiters to undergo psychometric testing to determine their suitability for various roles. However, a specialist workplace assessment group has raised concerns about recruiter misuse of the tests. Talent Q believes the problem is getting so bad that some recruiters are in danger of spoiling their employer brand [...]
Recent comments from the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have renewed hopes that IR35 may be destined for an earlier dispatch to the knacker’s yard than many contractors had supposed. There’s a certain amount of ‘reading the runes’ involved here but, while talking to a group of small business entrepreneurs last Thursday, David Cameron [...]
An in depth examination of the debatable Business Record Check plan – whereby small companies may be penalised by up to £3,000 for having inadequate paperwork – has now begun, HMRC has declared. Acknowledging “considerable concern” in regard to the spot-checking motivation, HMRC stated that it had begun a necessary review of BRC in discussion [...]
Most contractors working through umbrella companies will share widespread concerns about the UK’s economic prospects in 2012, although those with experience in the service sector can at least draw some comfort from a new survey conducted by Markit and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. PAYE umbrella contractors working in the sector may already [...]
Recruiters have expressed concern about a “lack of co-operation” from clients in relation to the Agency Workers Regulations, the REC reports. Contractors working through umbrella companies and limited companies alike have been keeping a keenly tuned ear open for news of the impact of the AWR, especially since the equal treatment measures kicked in for [...]
