Financial and IT contractors reaping the benefits of the City’s recovery
Financial and IT contractor prospects continue to improve as contract and job creation in London’s financial sector accelerates. The latest Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor shows that vacancies in the City leapt by 10% between June and July 2014, which translates into a 32% year-on-year increase. According to Morgan McKinley Financial Services operations director Hakan Enver, core contracting disciplines are leading the surge in new work: “In terms of the functions driving jobs growth, in July we saw a huge amount of demand within the HR, IT and accounting and finance arenas. For HR in particular, both contract and permanent roles continued to be in demand during July.” More...
Near record falls in contractor availability could signal time for renewal rate rises
Contractor availability falling at near record rates combined with a sharp upturn in demand and agency billings have created market conditions that are ripe for contractors to be asking for renewal rate increases. This is according to July 2014’s Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC/KPMG) Report on Jobs, which also shows demand continuing to grow across all contractor and temp categories. “Skills shortages in the key contracting disciplines have brought about a candidate-led market,” notes ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin. “With rates rising across the board, that means the time is ripe for those about to renew their contracts to be asking for rate rises.” More...
UK contractors are at the heart of Europe’s fastest growing contract market
UK contractors work in Western Europe’s self-employment capital, with the growth in UK self-employed numbers outpacing the rest of Europe, with the exception of “only a handful of countries in Southern and Eastern Europe”. A new analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows that between the first quarters of 2013 and 2014, self-employment in the UK grew at 8%. The overall increase in self-employment across the European Union (EU) during the same period rose by only 1%. More...
Contractor and freelancer numbers reach nearly a fifth of the UK workforce
Contractor and freelancer numbers reached 4.59m in the quarter to June 2014, an increase of 39,000 on the previous quarter. The latest Labour Market Statistics from the Office for National Statistics also show that all but 4,000 of those new self-employed workers are part-time, suggesting that much of the increase does not include core contractors, who typically work full time. However, as PCG senior public affairs manager Andy Chamberlain highlights, the self-employed are becoming difficult to ignore: “These current trends suggest that by next year there will be more self-employed professionals than people working in the public sector.” More...
Contractors with risk and compliance skills in demand to cover for permie shortfall
Contractors with risk and compliance skills in areas such as Basel III and Solvency II are finding themselves in increasing demand to cover for the shortfall in permanent candidate availability. Recruiter MERJE’s principal consultant Priya Mariannie told the Recruiter that “salaries had not increased as they had in other sectors to attract staff”, meaning that employers “fill the need for qualified permanent candidates by either taking on contract workers or turning to experienced consultancies who can provide the necessary skill.” More...
Contractors a “vital cog in the Whitehall machine”
Contractors “make a key contribution to government departments and offer taxpayers value for money”, says Derek Kelly, managing director of contractor accountant ClearSky. Kelly was responding to a Newsnight investigation into Whitehall spending on external consultants. “The day rates being paid to consultants represent the total cost to the public purse. There are no employer National Insurance (NI) contributions, no holiday pay and – most importantly – no pension costs to add on,” explains Kelly. “Conversely, a permanent employee earning £500 a day could actually be costing the government – and therefore taxpayers – an additional 35% or 40% on top of this. Sadly, such nuances are rarely reflected in mainstream media coverage and the wider public debate.” More...
Contractors would have an “even more complex” tax system if not for the OTS
Contractors would be suffering the effects of an “even more complex tax system” if it were not for the work of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). This is the view of BDO partner Philip Fisher, talking to Nick Huber in a report on AccountingWeb. Fisher adds: “If you want the cynical view [the tax system] is probably more complex than it was four years ago but it would have been even more complex without the OTS. The increasing complexity that the government is introducing is going at a faster pace than the simplification that the OTS is proposing.” More...
Contractors face having to pay IHT before they even die
Contractors may be forced to pay out inheritance tax (IHT) before they actually die if new proposals by HMRC are adopted by the government. In a Telegraph report, Peter Dominiczak and Dan Hyde write that HMRC has put out for consultation its plans to apply its new accelerated payments powers to individuals who use tax strategies to reduce their IHT liabilities after death. HMRC could demand that the contractors pay out the tax they hope to save by using the tax strategy up-front, which could be many years before they die. More...
Construction contractor prospects looking increasingly positive
Construction contractor prospects are looking increasingly positive as commercial construction activity in the UK continues to grow. The Savills Commercial Development Activity report shows that, despite a slight slow-down during July, all nine sub-sectors of commercial construction were well into growth territory. Public sector work continues to lag behind the private sector, but commercial developers are confident that work flows – and contracts – will remain strong in the coming three months. More...
Contractor limited companies at risk from Follower and Accelerated Payment Notices
Contractor limited companies may be among the 10,000 businesses that have used tax avoidance schemes and that can expect a letter from HMRC during August. According to International Business Times’ Sean Martin, the companies will currently be benefitting from a tax avoidance scheme, or will have taken advantage of a scheme in the past. HMRC will be writing to the companies demanding the tax the company will have saved by using the scheme be paid within 90 days, under the taxman’s new accelerated payment rules. More...