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Comment by dogma1138 | Hacker News Reader

It’s also true in general tech once you get to director or senior manager grade your short and long term incentive plans can be 50% of your BP and your BP isn’t going to be too shabby either.

Contractors do get paid more but they don’t earn more at least not anymore after IR35 since they have a tax rate that is over 50% as they are also liable for the 15.5% employer national insurance contributions now.

Overall contractors are far cheaper in the UK even at day rates of over £1000 and replacing people that earn high 5 to low six figures.

They aren’t paid any bonus, there is no pension contribution there are no benefits and there is no liability for redundancy.

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All good points but it really does depend on the industry and the level.

I have seen mid level jobs where the contractor is paid twice what the full time staff are, no bonus on either side.

Your point about long term incentives is very dependent on company. I wish I had a scheme like that!

Long term incentives are pretty much stock options plus a bonus “top up” where X% of your bonus for the current year is paid to you again after Y years (usually 2 or 3).

Stock options are usually available at most large traded companies, bonus top ups are usually for directors+ or senior managers in FAANG or other large US companies that tend to have more grades than UK ones.

Then there are ofc various retention bonuses and allowances, but these tend to be pretty much just a pay increase without the social contributions liabilities to the employer.

You can contract outside IR-35 still, no? At least there were some advertised on LinkedIn last time I looked. If the contract is outside IR-35 then you can still claim expenses and pay corporate tax instead of (most) income tax.

Does anyone advertise 'inside' IR35? I get tonnes too, but it'd be at my risk not the, err, employer's.

I haven’t seen any company that will take contractors outside of IR35 at least in London for more than a year now.

The risk falls completely on the company these days. IR35 is a very nasty piece of legislation it’s difficult to even hire remote contractors outside of the UK with it without going through an established firm.

Shorter than a year suits me. My goal with contracting is to have time off between contracts to have more energy and time to bootstrap some business ideas. It is a shame this legislation passed, I understand the concern about hidden employees/tax dodging but it seems they overshot a bit.

I think GP meant not noticed any such listings in the last 12 months, not that they were advertising a post with a duration less than a year.

I didn't think he was advertising, but I did misinterpret it as him saying only shorter term contracts were available outside IR35.

Ha, sorry, 'they' there meant the listings, not GP. Isn't English wonderful.

You aren’t getting outside of IR35 contracts in tech anymore even short fixed term ones (as short as 1-2 months), especially with any company that can afford to pay rates that make it worth while.

If HMRC catches you in violation of IR35 they can open the book and inspect any contracts over the past 10 years and retroactively penalize you. And by you I mean the “employer” in this case as in the company that hired you under contract.

No one is taking the risk today.

Almost no company will take on that risk these days. You can still claim expenses within IR35 too the only difference is that you have to use an umbrella company for PAYE to cover the NIC liability.

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