what are the actual benifits of being self empiloyed over paye?
i,e if you were to earn £400 a week self employed what is the take home,compared to £400 employed?
allowing for what you can leglly claim on you can claim for for,petrol.meal allownace,phone and any other litte add ons,
any info please,
regards
tonyb
Its all down to how good acountant you have 
Where are the places that pay £1000 self employed for the same hours that paye would get £600 for?
Is this just a myth, or is it actually possible to get paid more at the very start as SE?
I’m not interested in taking home more of a slightly lower gross pay, since I get all my tax back I’ve paid anyways. “Expenses” is effectively coming out of my own tax rebate pot!
Winseer:
Where are the places that pay £1000 self employed for the same hours that paye would get £600 for?Is this just a myth, or is it actually possible to get paid more at the very start as SE?
Unless you’ve done a bucket load of agency and have a good reputation, you’ll struggle. Far easier to do a couple of years on agency, get a reputation for doing the job right and not stuffing motors then approach places you’ve been and see if they’ll go with you direct.
i have a few places i can go to direct already,i just want to know if its worth my while earning £400 a week minimum for 4 days self employed,or £460 a week for 5 dayes employed paye
tonyb70:
what are the actual benifits of being self empiloyed over paye?
i,e if you were to earn £400 a week self employed what is the take home,compared to £400 employed?
allowing for what you can leglly claim on you can claim for for,petrol.meal allownace,phone and any other litte add ons,
any info please,
regards
tonyb
In a nutshell theres no advantage to the reciever, but the hirer hasnt got their NI contribution to pay or share any of the usual employer employee responsibilities ie sick pay holiday pay etc and has no loyalty liability either. Strictly speaking you cant be self employed without fullfilling certain criteria as the HRMC have had the loopholes sorted for some years.
You need to look at the differences between being sole trader, umbrella & Ltd Co. The only one who can make a fair bit more is the Ltd Co. simply because of the way that you, as a director, are paid/taxed. However, as has been mentioned elsewhere, going Ltd co. with a single agency, is going to be looked at more closely by HMRC, especially after departments in Government have been caught exploiting the grey areas to the same effect.
Just my opinion, but going self employed for me is more a lifestyle choice now then what I earn. I went S/E through anger 3 years ago after a fall out with a gaffer at the time.
I’m not going into my rates, but yes I do earn a lot more then I ever earned as a PAYE driver, In laymans terms, what I earned a month as PAYE average with different employers, I earn now in 15 days. but with every positive comes a negative. When I get home on a friday/Saturday, my day has not finished as I have to do invoicing and accounts. Next weeks work is never certain until you drive the truck out of the yard.
If you can imagine how keen you are the first week you start with a new company, you have to be that keen every week. You cant throw a wobbler in a RDC as your an ambassador for the company you work for and you have to protect their contracts if you want future work.
As someone else pointed out, you need a couple of bankers, a couple of ex-employers that did not want to see you leave for barren times when you can phone up and ask a favour.
A point of advice, if your mortgaged and credit carded up, make sure you have 3 months worth of bills cash in the bank when starting up. Touch wood, I’ve not been without a weeks work for 3 years, this year is looking bloody good.
I run a diary system where advanced bookings in the diary get a 50p per hour discount on my normal rate. I find this a fantastic set up as you can see where your going or struggling for the year, as I post this I have 11 weeks with no work booked now for 2012.
Oh, never try to do one over any employer, as first hand experience, most of my work now is via verbal discussions of haulier to haulier, as opposed to work I have sourced myself.
If your energetic, have a positive “No problem” attitude, dont mind putting out a bit, and 100% reliable. There is some bloody good money to be earned. (although the grand a week every week is more for your billybullcrap brigade, although achievable to do it 52 weeks constant would earn you an early grave.)
Oh and my top tip, 25% of every invoice, stuff away. Do not scrimp on this. Lump the taxman in on time and enjoy a good well deserved holiday with the lump you have left over as you will need it.
Edited to add, i’m a sole trader. I’ve never used an agency or umbrella outfit all my work is direct with a haulier on their insurance.
Conor:
Winseer:
Where are the places that pay £1000 self employed for the same hours that paye would get £600 for?Is this just a myth, or is it actually possible to get paid more at the very start as SE?
Unless you’ve done a bucket load of agency and have a good reputation, you’ll struggle. Far easier to do a couple of years on agency, get a reputation for doing the job right and not stuffing motors then approach places you’ve been and see if they’ll go with you direct.
I’ve already turned down the only offer I’ve had to work SE for good money - as they expected me to run bent, which I wasn’t prepared to do. £950 gross pw and all, but not worth the 75hour week I was expected to work, along with doctoring the tachos (52plate tractors) so I was expected to be booking breaks when loading myself on the back, and POA when working indoors, etc. You have a 15 hour shift every day, but only show 11-12 hours on the tacho. It would have been a burnout trying to keep it all together IF I’d decided that running bent was worth the risk, which I didn’t! 
I did 3 agency shifts, and knocked it on the head, having booked 45 hours in 3 days. I’d loved to have seen their faces when I pressed the agency to make sure I got paid for all that POA - 45 hours pay instead of the “33 on the tacho”! 
I was getting moaned at for filling up at the wrong branch of same fuel station (Not in cahoots with the one I went to perhaps?) and also for not answering the mobile phone whilst driving.
I don’t own a mobile, so they gave me one of theirs. I then proceeded to switch it off as soon as I set out!
I think the trick is to pitch your rates higher than an employee’s hourly but less than they pay an agency.
tonyb70:
i have a few places i can go to direct already,i just want to know if its worth my while earning £400 a week minimum for 4 days self employed,or £460 a week for 5 dayes employed paye
No. Self Employed should be at least 12.07% MORE than PAYE just to cover the holiday pay you don’t get.
By doing £460 self employed you’re saving that employer £100 in NI and Holiday pay they get away with not paying. To pay an employee £460 a week on PAYE actually costs an employer £560 or thereabouts so £560 is the least you want to be charging.
The fact you can apply some expenses and reduce your tax bill is inconsequential - you shouldn’t be doing S/E at a rate that saves them money. But by doing it at what it costs them to pay someone on PAYE to do it, you get more money in your pocket, it costs them no more than it would an employee and they’re not paying the agency tax of another £1-£2/hr for having a temp driver in so everyone wins.
Winseer:
I’ve already turned down the only offer I’ve had to work SE for good money - as they expected me to run bent, which I wasn’t prepared to do. £950 gross pw and all, but not worth the 75hour week I was expected to work, along with doctoring the tachos (52plate tractors) so I was expected to be booking breaks when loading myself on the back, and POA when working indoors, etc. You have a 15 hour shift every day, but only show 11-12 hours on the tacho. It would have been a burnout trying to keep it all together IF I’d decided that running bent was worth the risk, which I didn’t!
There will be a lot of drivers looking at a lot of what you’ve just said in amazement. I don’t know one single driver, myself included, who hasn’t tipped/loaded on break or PoA. But anyway you don’t need to use PoA because as far as I know, the WTD doesn’t apply to self employed drivers.
Conor, Would you work a 75 hour week for £950 a week? You suggest everyone desperate for work would bite hands off to get work like that?
With the “other work” and “break” basically being indoor work and self loading (I drive forks & reach), this job is basically offering you a burnout. It could pay £2k per week, and you’ll still be dead in 6 months because by the time you hit the road for the return 4 hour leg through the morning traffic, you’ve been on duty 13-14 hours, and out of bed for 16+ by that point.
As I said, I pulled the plug at the end of the third day, cos I can’t get by with 2 hours sleep a day that many times in a row. Tried it, but it didn’t work for me. I only tried it because I was motivated by the £950 a week pay, rather naiively thinking it would be for a 48 hour week tops, since it was a week-in, week out job thereby having to make the lawful averages and all that. 
You can earn £950 a week doing lots of other things that involve breaking the law and acting in an unsafe manner. People who can get by on 2 hours sleep week in week out might go for it, but I’m not one of them. 
what does an employer have to pay for a staff member,
i;e employers tax and insurance,
so i know what prices i’d be looking once i know what they play their own staff