CONTRACTING ADVICE

[turbroprop]

Looking at changing from a permanent position to contracting.


Any advice on self employment / limited company / tax etc would be appreciated.


Thanks

[Krystal n chips]

If you don't mind me asking.....why ?

It seems a strange choice, given the fact permanent employment is preferable to the fabled circuit.

However, if you do decide to go down this route, there's only one real option for you in answer to your query.

Get a good, very good in fact, accountant.... and let he / she do all the work.

You will have to pay of course, but, the savings ( monetary, time and effort )are well worth the cost to yourself.

And good luck in your dealings with the social parasitic sewage called "recruitment consultants "........

[turbroprop]

K and C

Trying to avoid side tracking into contract v permy. In my case there is logic.

Long term contract. Better types and working conditions.

[spannersatcx]

Having done it, with no choice, my advice don't! Unless you are young free and single have no responsibilities are prepared to move at the drop of a hat, think you are in a nice contract for the next 6 months only to get the chop today, prepared to work extremely long hours have no chance to enjoy the money you have earned, want a type rating payŁ000's whilst not being paid, etc etc etc.

[Brigantee]

Was considering returning to contracting myself however it seems rates just have not moved with the times i was offered plenty of work at hourly rates only marginally more than i was earning in 1993 which was around 25 GBP/hr


However if you do go for it remember the golden rule never ever believe a word a recruitment "consultant " says , They about on a par with estate agents/bankers when it comes to morals

[cedgz]

Hi turboprop,

I did the move, and spannersatcx resumes it very well...
On the other hand, i don't regret

[Capot]

Use the larger, well-established, properly financed agencies, and avoid those who neither understand nor care about tax issues in other EU countries, which is about half of them, and have not followed the laws of those countries, which could leave you and/or their clients in deep dodo. (And use a good accountant, who specialises in contractors.) Germany, Italy, The Netherlands are good examples of places with tricky tax regimes.

Their consultants will still be untrustworthy, but less so than than those on commission only with small, new and poorly financed ones. And they are less likely to renege on payments due to you because they have not got cash reserves when their clients pay late, as they always will. And they get the most requests from clients.

Have a good, concise CV ready, with copies of all your relevant certs as PDF's in a single file. Make sure your mandatory certs have at least 3 months remaining validity. (HF, EWIS, FTS; do them online to save money, go to Aviation Job Search for a selection of suppliers.).

Good Luck! As people have said, if you can stay permy you should, contracting is not the nirvana it seems to be when you are permy. But if it suits you for other reasons, it's not all bad. Above all, keep your own counsel in a client's hangar; don't do anything illegal, but accept that you are expected to give top value.

If you are certifying in third world banana republics like Greece, make sure you know what happened in that Greek/Cypriot B737 crash a few years ago, Helios flight 522 October 2006, and the disgraceful, shameful behaviour of the so-called judicial system in Greece where the search for a scapegoat, any scapegoat, preferably foreign, with no attempt to understand the technical facts, led to dreadful injustice for the entirely innocent certifying LAME, a contractor called Alan Irwin. The equally shameful, abject, cowardly refusal (inability?) of the UK CAA to defend robustly not only the individual but the integrity of a UK CAA-issued licence was a lesson to us all in how low that organisation has sunk.