The Freelance Thread (Contractor, IR35)

Have a good set of standard t&c's to give yourself some protection. Include invoice dates, notice period etc. DM me as I have a template I can send as well as template for mapping a sales / client pipeline if useful.

Think like a sales team and make a list of people you've worked with that you got on with/would work with again. See what they're up to and if you can have a coffee (may lead to referrals).

Figure out what day rate feels right for you. Then up it as people will pay. (advice I was given was what salary would be ideal, then divide by 42 to give week rate with 10 weeks off per year for sickness/holiday/bank holidays etc).

Write down why you are going freelance and any hard lines/non negotiables you want to set for yourself - work days/hours, ideal clients, if you want to be part of a project team or completely working on your own, any values that are important to you so you know what you're looking for in a piece of work/client.

Experiment with working at home, trial co-work spaces and coffee shops etc (working from home full time gets me a little stir crazy)

Network like someone else said - find your 'tribe' and peers as well as possible clients and collaborators. Other freelancers tend to be really supportive and helpful so just keep talking to people that have done similar.

Ah ok, missed that sorry. Then yes, you should totally pay them for doing that :)

Thanks for the advice everyone, definitely a couple of bits in there that I had forgotten about!

Does anyone have any experience with having a contract between their UK Ltd company and a NL client that pays in euros.

Wondering what the mechanics of getting paid are? Guessing it's like this but I'm missing some steps?

1. Client pays in euros
   
2. Euros land in UK business account that accepts euros
   
3. Pay VAT to UK or NL?
   
4. Pay money from Ltd company euro account to Ltd company GBP account?
   ??
   
   

Any help/Info appreciated, trying to work out if it's worth the expected hassle.

I imagine the NL company would expect an invoice without VAT? You'd then zero-rate your income within your Ltd company too (so would pay HMRC £0 VAT each quarter).

Otherwise, yep, simple cross-border engagement... you could choose to keep the business income in EUR, or GBP. Personally, I'd invoice in GBP because it's less hassle for your accountant (FX reporting).

Ok thanks, NL company mentioned paying in Euros but I'll ask them about paying in GBP.

So not VAT to pay HMRC or NL equivalent? I thought one of them would want their slice?

Perhaps, I assume it depends on the country and your contract?

I invoice Sweden in GBP regularly and the company that pays me pays VAT at 25% in Sweden, but I have to zero-rate my invoice to them (B2B) and then need to document zero-rated VAT in the UK as otherwise HMRC would default to requesting VAT at 20%.

If the situation was reversed then I believe the Swedish company would zero-rate their invoice to me and my company would be 'Reverse Charged' as the buyer of foreign services and would then have a 20% VAT liability in the UK which could not be recovered.

I may have gotten something wrong, but this is my current understanding!

the fx thing is bane of my life

Great, thanks!

London freelancers and general service suppliers: what's the current, actual solution to business card type things? Still cards?
For a bit at my agency we had some sort of QR code and tap-to-share contact thing but I was never really required to do any networking and I don't think it particularly took off

I have the Blinq app on my phone, which is QR based but have used it twice in 18 months.

TBH, any networking event that requires business cards is automatically listed as one to avoid, as I prefer talking to people and then using my phone to make a note of their details to follow up. Better for the planet, cheaper and more personable, but I realise this may not work for everyone.

oh its definitely not required, I just had a moment where I thought that its possible someone might ask if I have one and then i'd look foolish. Plus I want to be remembered, but arguably someone making a note is more likely to remember than someone emptying their wallet

Great. I’m now out in the sticks and there’s a fair amount of old school networking events that are very golf club/old boys who I wouldn’t want to have as clients anyway.

My clients are tech-savvy but not techie experienced professionals. My business cards (in a tasteful eggshell with a pleasant heft but no watermark lol) have my name and the jurisdictions I operate in on the front, and on the back is a dynamic QR code with my contact details, web presence, etc. If the contact is important, and I’m not exchanging cards out of courtesy or whatever, I make a point of taking out a pen and telling them I’m giving them my “direct” number on the front, along with whatever key word I want them to associate me with.

Scanning QR codes off a stranger’s phone is something I avoid. Same with the ndic stickers people are starting to use these days.

I keep two stored behind my phone in its case.

More questions from me, thanks for your help everybody

Any pro tips on a project management software that isn't too spendy? I have used Monday in the past, I like that well enough but I don't know if Notion or something else can be used to similar effect without the same cost associated. It's just me with a mix of clients, so I don't need the same team aspects as I used on Monday, but I like the due dates and gant chart stuff

There's a fair few open source / free (as in beer and / or as in speech) desktop and self-hosted packages around.

It depends what you need it for and how you're going to use it, as to what is going to work best.

I've only ever used spreadsheets - a lot of the bells and whistles in project packages just aren't necessary (which is no doubt entirely dependent on your PM style, of course).

For GANTT charts (because SteerCos love a pretty picture) I just copy from the s/s into MS Project / whatever, and copy / print that.

Is anyone on here doing the ltd company, director-only employee thing, and tracking their mileage?
If yes, do you (personally) bill the company for the expenses accrued via the mileage tracked?

I was previously just putting petrol station receipts in but have recently opted for the journey tracker tool, but now I can't tell if I actually get the money or it just goes against profit

I log the mileage for business trips and take the money out of the company as an expense reimbursement

apologies for being a bit dim, but i think that's essentially the method i was hoping for - I can just transfer the same figure as the mileage calculator is showing for December, and mark the transaction as a travel expense? I'm just a bit lost as to what the mileage calculator tool actually does beyond keeping track of the mileage, the information doesnt seem to go anywhere

i guess I download the mileage data every month and pop it in the accounting folder ready for any audits or something

I pay myself 0.45p per mile from my Ltd to my personal account. It’s treated as an out of pocket expense. In terms of auditing then yes, just pop a record if it wherever you log your similar expenses.

I need some assistance, or rather my partner does. She is going back to freelance after 3 years of perm. Obviously lots has changed since then and despite me having a Ltd co and her doing some freelance through an umbrella co for a few jobs before we are totally confused by what google has shown us as advice.

The roles she will be taking on are creative director or senior art director for ad agencies.

In the past I have put some of her 1-2 week freelance jobs through my Ltd as they had to be done with a new supplier form completed and be Ltd. So I charged vat and paid her for her services so effectively zero for my business and she paid self employed tax on that. No funny tax avoidance business here.
Accountant didn’t query it but no idea if this will be frowned upon moving forward.
She’s reluctant to go Ltd and it’s still unclear if say a 6month contract comes in she will have to be made perm/IR35?
Also no idea how agencies view freelancers? Do they want them sole trader or Ltd?

Why is she reluctant to have her own Ltd? Agencies won’t go for sole trader as they then become liable for tax. So she’ll either need to invoice as a Ltd (could continue to be yours) or use an umbrella. Don’t use an umbrella as the take home is much less.

Re IR35, each contact/booking will have a Status Determination that decides if it’s inside or outside. The agency handles this - she will need to answer some questions - but it’s the agencies responsibility

She see’s me doing my vat and wrestling with quick(slow)books and paying my accountant v’s filling in 4 boxes on a tax return.
Her freelancing is way simpler than mine just an adobe subscription and a new MacBook every 4 years.
I’m the one who does her tax return as that’s within my grasp, my business is a bit more complicated with way more ins/outs/production costs.

Having talked some more we just ended up with more questions like could she be a director of my company but not billing through me and drawing a salary while getting sole trader work?

She doesn’t want to use an umbrella co as they were a mare to deal with and took their slice of the pie.

It's me again! When charging expenses to a client, ie mileage, is there anything particular that needs to be done?

I've paid myself the mileage expenses as calculated each month, but now I'm finishing a project I want to bill the relevant trips to the client. Just the value of those trips as calculated?

Am not VAT registered so there's no extra complication there