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stories

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    James

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  1. Hi Paul, Most commercial spaces I ever looked at were insuring and repairing leases, which put a lot of additional cost and risk, above the lease cost, on the the tenant, curious if you've found the same up there or managed to find places with better terms avalibe ? s
  2. Curious how this varies from place to place. In my bit of W London the roads are like 3 am & the pavements are almost empty, as are the busses (hence my alarm in another thread about being trapped on crowded busses only a few miles nearer town). On the other hand, I've just heard from family on the edge of Bognor Regis that today was the first day the roads weren't very busy. I guess the message that keeping your distance might save your life as well as other people's might be starting to get through, but only very, very s-l-o-w-l-y. If you've only ever worn a suit & drawn a salary it must be hard to understand the SE world if your only experience of it is cash-in-hand plumbers & "builders" or wealthy TV personalities posing as companies to save tax, neither of which you might think of as "deserving causes" (I'm only speculating here - the only time I had to sit behind a desk I couldn't wait to get back to "real" work). In my part of the world (leafy commuter market town..): It's been like a scene from 28 days later up until the end of this week just gone, suns come out and people are venturing out a LOT more this weekend. Everything is still sensible for the most part though (save the odd groups of youths..). I think the key to all of this is common sense and being sensible, I don't see the harm in going out to sunbath or have a picnic for an hour, provided people are sensible and observe the social distancing and aren't displaying any symptoms (Provided your local area has the space vs population). The observation I have is that this virus thrives in densely packed areas like London where everyone is on top of each other and squished in to public transport, so common sense being to asses each area on it's own merits. Wee bit worrying though when the Chancellor of the Exchequer and HMRC do not understand the SE world, it's there business to understand it...... (and they should have more experience than just the cash in hand plumber, they certainly get my SA return every year.. at great expense to my business might I add!!). I took great exception to the jab made at the SE: saying we don't pay our fair share of tax... then adding suggestion the SE help package is on par with the PAYE help package (which they keep adding more benefits too might I add..).... And add to that he's an MP, thus he is most likely more versed in 'taking the pi$$' when it comes to claiming expenses than most 'cash in hand' tradesmen or TV Celebrities........ While I think the Self-employed help is ok, and welcome it over nothing, it does fall short of reality of quite a few SE people (though not all as we are a wide and complex demographic) who actually operate as a business and not just a part-time workers... s
  3. The Government seems to have forgotten or overlooked a lot of aspects of running a business and/or been self employed in general (more so with out industry), where help is really needed, while banging their drum about the self-employed not paying the fair share of tax but getting equal help to PAYE... and sticking two fingers up at sole director ltd's paying themselves in dividends (imo they have a point there, but not the time for it and it's the tax system that needs to change.. not the individuals at fault). My cynical opinion is they are catering to the largest voting demographic, majority of people are PAYE (help them) and stop the larger employers from going under. Anyone else is a minority and/or more self-starters who will deal with it and get on with it. I'm curious how long all of this is going to go on for, almost seems like a normal day outside to day. my guess is not that much longer, but there will be hefty restrictions on mass gatherings for a significant amount of time still and that will really hit our sector. Stay safe! s
  4. Surly just moves the lump a bit further into the future and makes it a bit bigger (not that it's not worth doing if you need to keep hold of cash right now as most of us probably do!). You would think the Government would add temporarily raising the tax threshold for those on Self-Assessment to help the self-employed that are going to be struggling in a month or two and then even more so come January 31st next year when tax bills become due for this year. My current thoughts then jump to wondering if all the outstanding invoices will be paid (in good time or at all) with companies starting feeling the pinch in a months time... s
  5. Seen as no-one else has replied: Not enough...... ....I would say 200 to 300 is probably the going ball park day rate for 10 or 12 hours (different companies have wildly different ideas of what they want to be paying so ymmv...). s
  6. Thanks for the reply Kerry, no offence taken and kinda glad it's not just me that hates the term 'freelancer' (as it's used currently in the AV / Events world) I would however think a businesses standard T&C are fairly public domain as they would be provide to any potential client enquiring about engaging services, I'm not talking about detailed contractual terms you may then go and negotiate with a specific clients and asking in an open forum makes more sense to me than going off and soliciting quotes from people for fictitious jobs and asking what their T&C's are, no? I'm totally with you on the the 'Freelancer', that's kind of why I have the hump and asked questions in the first place, my feeling is that more often than not, AV companies compleatly abuse the 'freelancer', treating them as an employee when it benefits them and sub-contractor when it benefits them, giving little care to the nature of the relationship or what benefits the 'freelancer', more often than not, resulting in what I see as disguised employment, rather than engaging a business supplying services. But there seems to be a lot of 'freelancers' that are happy to keep the status quo and put up with the way they are treated ad move on to the next job. It's certainly a fine line knowing when to stand up for ones self and when to shut-up to earn a crust. I guess I am more curious if any 'freelancers' actually have/send out T&C or just accept jobs and take whatever. My experience is that traditionally clients either told you what they wanted to pay and you said yes or no, or they used to ask your rate and that was about it, with all the IR35/tax stuff fairly recently (been at this 15 - 20 years), the larger companies (that do generally use 'Freelancers' as a dynamic workforce of workers, rather than genuine sub-contractors providing a service) that would make a better target for the tax man, seem to have started trying to cover there backs with t&c document etc that tell you your a sub-contractor, but they in the next breath set the terms that sound like an employee and of-course completely miss the real point..... s
  7. So a good question is what sort of T&C's do you guys have (As freelance Sound, Lighting, AV techs)? Having had a tough about it, I can either write ware and peace to cover most if not all eventualities or can just cover the most important points. Curious what other people are using as we are all probably doing similar jobs ?! s
  8. Thanks Paul, Basically the customer is wishing to use my services (I would say engage but for the t&C's and the way we tend to work..), but has provided there T&Cs with there PO, no request to sign and return though at this point so not sure if they have much standing, but I digress. Any they have calculated my 'costs' and not even asked whet I charge.. They are quite brief, but mention things like how they expect travel to be calculated (based on there office location... and deducting x miles for travel to there), that they don't accept that airport travel (to) and airport parking as a cost (i.e. they think it is part of 'travailing to work') and there is a line about 'day rates' (I think it is lifted from an HMRC doc as it's familiar), which could be interpreted as an open ended agreement to work until the job is done (that's fine if I have quoted a job cost based on detailed information, but not when I have said 'yes I'm available' and they have said great,book it in and we will send over a PO'. In which case my quote is 'day rate = costs' ). The water is muddied a little more in that the company has recently been take over, the previous agreement had worked well and everyone was happy, but the new owners are obviously trying to cut there admin overheads and manage costs. Thanks for the Reply to Roger, In this instance it is probably a case of, keep ones mouth shut and get on with it, as the T&C do't really impact this particular job much (hopefully), beyond stiffing me for 15 quid on the travel, but my question is more for the bigger picture and looking forward. Whats getting me that some people expect you to agree to things without actually providing you any information, like for instance, what the job involves, where your staying, how and when your getting fed or need to source ones self, what parking arrangements are. How on earth can I asses if I am charging enough... ?! The situation that prompted my post is a little muddied as the company in question has recently been taken over, traditionally it was a case of 'Are you available XYZ', 'yes', 'Good, can we book you please', then a PO arrives with basic day rate and please add any reasonable travel and parking costs etc so it is currently a bot of an unknown with a new owner and what seems light tighter controls on the accounts (It's a bit like suddenly fining you working for Music group, with the low cost, stack it high approach). So question to freelancers is: Do you provide your own T&C's Do you just put up and shutup to keep the work? Or do you negotiate terms that are mutually agreeable (in my experience anyone clients doing the T&C's thing are big enough that they see freelancers as a commodity, and the chain of 'admin people' doesn't provide a very good medium for negotiation). Anyways, another important part of the recent debates that have been posted recently about Employment status etc I still firmly believe the TAX man would have a field day if he started investigating AV companies and there 'dynamic work forces'.. but on the whole we are to small of a target for the effort vs return. Would sure help the wadges debt if companies had to start booking lampies with there own desks etc... : o p s
  9. Dear all, So one thing that keeps popping it's ugly head up now and again in my world is that of companies supposedly using sub-contractors (free-lancers) and their (the company) sending out their own T&C, which inevitably read for the most part as if your are an employee rather than a sub-contractor. Now I fully appreciate that the 'AV freelancer' is largely a myth and we are all, for the most part, a dynamic workforce of part-time employees (just don't tell the tax man) with the veil of trying to give the tax man the impression their's no NIC etcetc to pay. So what I am asking is: 1st off, How do you deal with it, when someone sends you a T&C's document that tells you what you can and can't bill on, what your responsibility are (yet does not mention a specific contract or engagement for details) etcetc that certainly goes against your own T&C of business? And largely sounds like an internal document for employees Putu-p and shut-up? Stand your ground and challenge it? 2nd, Would the tax man expect every sub-contractor to be working under the same T&C's (Surly agreements should be on an individual basis?)? 3rd, Do you have your own T&C's as a subcontractor? s
  10. I'd say Business and Organisations, people (I'm assuming meaning those doing the work and claiming to be self-employed), in general (there is the obvious exception with high net worth individuals taking the pi$$) are more just trying to work within the system, where the system wont give a straight answer and is awfully complicated. It's the Business that seem to be trying there luck and using loopholes, trying to have a dynamic workforce and avoid the over head of employment benafit and rights. imo Surly the BBC, given it's legacy, should have been above all that though... As someone who about 70 - 80 % of my work is as a 'AV freelancer' I feel like I'm treated as an employee by most clients, told when to turn up/go, use there tools (yes I have hand tools, but I don't supply any proper items like sound/lighting desks, PA ect.. 99% of the time), asked to ware there branded tops and any of them that send out T&C's read very much like I'm an employee. That said I see myself as a separate business providing a service, I'd just like some of my clients to treat me as such (and the tax system to be simple and sensible...) and not just cherry pick the bits that benafit themselves. For the foreseeable future I'll also still be confused... s
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