Bale Bandit:
I can only speak from my experience.People expect to pay more for SE workers and I’ve NEVER had
an invoice queried beyond asking for a breakdown.I am £100s better off per month being SE.
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Give the people some figures.
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Dieseldoforme:
Bale Bandit:
I can only speak from my experience.People expect to pay more for SE workers and I’ve NEVER had
an invoice queried beyond asking for a breakdown.I am £100s better off per month being SE.
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Give the people some figures.
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Ok, broadly speaking I’m invoicing out at £10-15 more a shift than the PAYE staff at one of my regulars. Between 20 and 23 shifts a month that’s a minimum of £200 a month more than a PAYE driver.
As for invoicing, I keep a diary of the shift/hours I work, I transfer this to an invoice weekly and produce those invoices monthly to all my customers. I offer a standard 30 day payment term although most of my customers pay within 14. Should a customer request a breakdown I transfer the hours/shifts to a timesheet and email it over. None of my customers have queried these timesheets and other than 1 customer about 2 years ago I have had no trouble collecting payment since moving into haulage.
Bale Bandit:
Broadly speaking I’m invoicing out at £10-15 more a shift than the PAYE staff at one of my regulars. Between 20 and 23 shifts a month that’s a minimum of £200 a month more than a PAYE driver.As for invoicing, I keep a diary of the shift/hours I work, I transfer this to an invoice weekly and produce those invoices monthly to all my customers. I offer a standard 30 day payment term although most of my customers pay within 14. Should a customer request a breakdown I transfer the hours/shifts to a timesheet and email it over. None of my customers have queried these timesheets and other than 1 customer about 2 years ago I have had no trouble collecting payment since moving into haulage.
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Thanks. I don’t want to put you down because I think you have been pretty honest with the figures that you have kindly given us. Unlike New Lad who has come out with a pile of bullshot.
For my part, I genuinely want to see what is best under different circumstances. I think a lot of Drivers have been misled in the past. I did look seriously into all this when the popularity of going SE reached a peak for truck drivers in my area about six years ago. It was then that I discovered that Agency Drivers on PAYE can also get many of the tax allowances that SE get. Back then the going rate was mainly an extra £1 per hour for SE and in many cases it is still the same today EVEN THOUGH PAID HOLIDAYS FOR PAYE HAVE INCREASED FROM 20 DAYS THEN TO 28 DAYS NOW, BY LAW.
A lot of Agencies try to give PAYE Drivers the basic rate for holiday pay when it should be the average pay for the previous 12 weeks. I know this to be correct because I have taken legal action against two agencies and I won both cases.
So, to be fair, I always take PAYE holiday pay to be worth £2800pa, that’s 28 days at an average wage of £100 per day. Call those 28 days - 6 weeks - therefore there are only 46 weeks or ten and a half months left in the year for the SE just to make up that £2800 alone. That’s £266 per month. And we haven’t considered Sick Pay, Redundancy Pay or even Company Pension contributions yet.
Can you follow this ?
The PAYE is aready 66 quid pm better than you as SE in your first paragraph above!
How come? What am I missing ?
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Dieseldoforme:
NewLad:
If it’s to do with the invoice amount, work it out for yourself:84hrs in a 6 day week paid straight through Tuesday - Sunday.
Weekdays @ £11ph
Weekends @ £13ph
add in 3 nights out a weekYou’re over 1k on the invoice.
6 x £10 tax relief for meals = £12 less tax but it cost you £60.
30 miles commute to/from work @ £0.45ppm = £16 less tax but it cost you £80.And receipts for any other “expenses” you incur. I used to claim for
razors, shower gel, shampoo, shaving foam, tooth paste = Free Balloons.
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Well it’s good to see that you have put forward a fair example - like a six-day working week that includes the whole weekend, 15 hour days and 13 hours days. And three nights out - not five but only three. I bet you even took off 9 hours for breaks, just to give a fair picture of what self employed means. And you did 84 hours EVERY week I suppose.Come clean.
What were the Hours Worked, Gross Earnings, Tax Allowances and Nett Pay for the financial year in question ? No doubt you have a copy of your Tax Return so you won’t have to massage any figures to make it look good.
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Why have you edited my post so it says tax relief, it isn’t tax relief, it’s £10 per day as expenses!
Also no I don’t have a tax return as it was this financial year. I was also on it for a mere 6 weeks because like I have said before I wanted full time employment with having a wife, 2 young children, a mortgage and being the only person working in the household, being self employed didn’t offer me the security that I required.
No I didn’t max my hours out every week, in fact for 2 weeks I chose to work just 3 days, as I was doing my C+E. However the principal of the expenses remains the same! In my 2, 6 day weeks, yes I did max my hours out.
I can assure you 100% that I got 45pence for EVERY mile I commuted to and from work, as expenses. I have no reason to lie and tbh I don’t care if you don’t believe me but don’t fill this bloke head with bull ■■■■ ‘facts’ that you obviously know f all about.
Dieseldoforme:
Bale Bandit:
Broadly speaking I’m invoicing out at £10-15 more a shift than the PAYE staff at one of my regulars. Between 20 and 23 shifts a month that’s a minimum of £200 a month more than a PAYE driver.As for invoicing, I keep a diary of the shift/hours I work, I transfer this to an invoice weekly and produce those invoices monthly to all my customers. I offer a standard 30 day payment term although most of my customers pay within 14. Should a customer request a breakdown I transfer the hours/shifts to a timesheet and email it over. None of my customers have queried these timesheets and other than 1 customer about 2 years ago I have had no trouble collecting payment since moving into haulage.
.
Thanks. I don’t want to put you down because I think you have been pretty honest with the figures that you have kindly given us. Unlike New Lad who has come out with a pile of bullshot.For my part, I genuinely want to see what is best under different circumstances. I think a lot of Drivers have been misled in the past. I did look seriously into all this when the popularity of going SE reached a peak for truck drivers in my area about six years ago. It was then that I discovered that Agency Drivers on PAYE can also get many of the tax allowances that SE get. Back then the going rate was mainly an extra £1 per hour for SE and in many cases it is still the same today EVEN THOUGH PAID HOLIDAYS FOR PAYE HAVE INCREASED FROM 20 DAYS THEN TO 28 DAYS NOW, BY LAW.
A lot of Agencies try to give PAYE Drivers the basic rate for holiday pay when it should be the average pay for the previous 12 weeks. I know this to be correct because I have taken legal action against two agencies and I won both cases.
So, to be fair, I always take PAYE holiday pay to be worth £2800pa, that’s 28 days at an average wage of £100 per day. Call those 28 days - 6 weeks - therefore there are only 46 weeks or ten and a half months left in the year for the SE just to make up that £2800 alone. That’s £266 per month. And we haven’t considered Sick Pay, Redundancy Pay or even Company Pension contributions yet.
Can you follow this ?
The PAYE is aready 66 quid pm better than you as SE in your first paragraph above!
How come? What am I missing ?
.
.
I’m going to give up soon because an idiot can never be told…
So being PAYE can you claim…
45 pence for every mile to and from your place of work? No
Can you claim for expenses for your night out gear/equipment for your job such as, duvet, pillow, tv, lap top, tablet, camping stove, pens, sat nav/snooper and many many other things (full cost not just the tax relief)? No
Can you claim for the full cost of purchasing your uniform? No
Can you claim for the full cost of your mobile phone line rental and all other business calls made? No
Can you claim the full £10 per shift meal allowance? No
You may be able to claim some tax RELIEF for some of these things but you can NOT claim 100% of the cost back and that is a fact!
If your customer agrees to pay you on top of your invoiced amount £10 per day meal allowance and 45p per mile travelling (which i do not believe many would) then they would be tax free perks. If as i believe things to be there are tax free allowances then all you are realistically saving is the tax you would have paid on those amounts.£2 a day or 9p per mile, 
seems there is a mis understanding of claim and full amount.
If you claim full amount gfor phones, night out gear, tablets. i-pods etc, is someone actually paying you for them. Do you invoice your customer and he pays for all your goodies. If so you get the lot. If you claim for the relief from them for tax, you have paid for those items are CLAIMING for them and as such do not pay tax on the amount you have spent. So if all your purchases come to £1,000 and you claim the full amount for tax relief you pay £200 less tax. If you have a very soft and gullible ( and i believe unfindable) customer who would pay you the £1,000 the items cost then you are getting the full amount back. ( and you may have to pay a little tax on the £1,000 if some of items usable for private use).
I’m sure that is how it works. It did when i was S/E 
Ok so this is how it reads on a Pay Statement from when I Ltd co as a class 2 driver I invoiced for aprox 60hrs over 5 days no nights out
Invoice Total 577.75
Less Retentions
Management Charge £22.00
NIC £2.98
Tax on Salary £32.00
Corporation Tax £1.66
Holiday Pay Reserve £0.00
Total £58.64
Payment to your Bank Account £519.11
Represented By:
Net Salary £126.68
Expenses £385.80
Net Dividend Payable £6.63
Total £519.11
NB I was still on emergency tax as my P45 was with my previous employer as I was still in lieu of redundancy notice, the reason for the high Expenses claim was I put the cost of my class 1 through as a business expense, which was claimed over multiple weeks as expenses (the receipt for which had to be handed in)
Please correct me if i am wrong, but you are paying yourself for taking class 1 therefore receiving tax allowance but only paying yourself a small salary but your invoice to your customer is not for the class 1 test but a reasonable £577 for a weeks work.
I did a weeks work as a class 2 driver I hadn’t been assessed on class one with the company I was with at the time so they wouldn’t let me drive one, neither would they pay me as a class one. However after the week I put up I went full time with said company on class 1 and took home LESS for my first week as a class 1.
The reason for the small salary is to keep the income tax and nat ins low, what would normally happen in a ‘average’ week is
Pay of £160.00
Expenses of £100
Dividend of £310ish
You would pay a little more corporation tax (not much due to it’s low %) but your tax and NIC would remain the same, the idea is, if you want anything and can put it through the ‘business’ you do, get the expenses as high as possible to keep the tax, NIC and Corp tax as low as possible.
HTH
NewLad:
Why have you edited my post so it says tax relief, it isn’t tax
relief, it’s £10 per day as expenses!
.
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I haven’t edited anything.
You wrote that ■■■■■ yourself at 7:39 this morning, just before
your pathetic claim for toothpaste.
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the old timer:
If, as i believe things to be, these are tax free allowances then all you are realistically saving is the tax you would have paid on those amounts. £2 a day or 9p per mile.
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Thank you.
At last someone understands how our tax system works.
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I give up!
Edit - At the end of the day as a class 2 driver over 5 days I took home £519 with no nights out, as a Class 1 driver PAYE employed by a company I take home £480 for the same week with no nights out.
You do the maths
If I was a class 1 on Ltd Co my take home would be 70-100 pw more than class 2
NewLad:
I give up!
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No surprise there then.
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Dieseldoforme:
NewLad:
I give up!.
No surprise there then.
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I give up because you have NEVER been Ltd Co, yet you’re telling every man and his dog the pro’s and con’s of the job. You have never been Ltd Co, yet you’re so sure that you are just a well off on PAYE as you are on Ltd Co, in fact in your opinion you are better off being PAYE! Because you get holiday pay, redundancy pay and employee rights.
It’s a wonder why anyone does it.
I tell you what OP Ltd Co/ Self Employed is rubbish and not worth doing, your practically paying them to work!
NewLad:
…in your opinion you are better off being PAYE! Because you get
holiday pay, redundancy pay and employee rights.
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Another load of crap. That’s not my opinion at all.
My advice to the Original Poster was:
“Look carefully before you leap. Self Employed does not benefit everyone.”
Your advice was to come out with misleading numbers and a lot of nonsence.
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Dieseldoforme:
NewLad:
…in your opinion you are better off being PAYE! Because you get
holiday pay, redundancy pay and employee rights..
Another load of crap. That’s not my opinion at all.My advice to the Original Poster was:
“Look carefully before you leap. Self Employed does not benefit everyone.”Your advice was to come out with misleading numbers and a lot of nonsence.
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Misleading numbers? I gave the class 1 rate and the hours you can expect around my area, how is this misleading?
I have posted details off my Pay Statement from when I was Class 2, how were these misleading numbers?
My ADVICE was to seek professional advice from a financial advisor/accountant about the exact details of what can and can’t be claimed for. My advice was to not listen to me or anyone else (yourself), just to seek advice from someone professional. I posted about my experience of being Ltd Co, which is more than any relevant information you have!
talking of doing the maths
say you earn £100 (keeping it simple) you spend £10 on food leaving you £90 in pocket. Then you have to pay HMRC 20% income tax on your £100 earnings (£20) total after tax £70
scenario with food allowance claim… £100 earnings £10 on food ( you still have to spend it keeping receipt) = £90 in pocket claim tax allowance on food = £100 - £10 = £90 - 20% tax = £18 total after tax £72
there concludes my maths lesson
HTH
Foxstein:
talking of doing the maths
say you earn £100 (keeping it simple) you spend £10 on food leaving you £90 in pocket. Then you have to pay HMRC 20% income tax on your £100 earnings (£20) total after tax £70
scenario with food allowance claim… £100 earnings £10 on food ( you still have to spend it keeping receipt) = £90 in pocket claim tax allowance on food = £100 - £10 = £90 - 20% tax = £18 total after tax £72
there concludes my maths lesson
HTH
My point is in the 6 weeks I was Ltd Co, I didn’t once have to provide a receipt for meals, I don’t know if that is because my Ltd Co was paying myself a £10 tax free meal allowance, like the current firm I’m with now provides me with a £5 per day tax free meal allowance.
Conor:
tobytyke:
Hey up guys im considering going the self employed route but I was just wondering once I choose an accountant etc how do you put your tax and NI contributions aside ? for instance if your earning £500 a week do you kind of stash £100 aside every week till you get your tax bill etc ? ive never really though about how it all works really. Sorry if it seems a dumb question.
Also lets say that after 5 months you accept a job on PAYE what happens then in regards to the previous 5 month self employed ?The best way not to end up in the crap is as follows:
Do a household expenses spreadsheet and work out just how much you actually need from your earned income to pay the bills and only pay yourself that regardless of how much you earn.
Pay everything else into the highest interest ISA account you can. It’ll allow you to continue to pay yourself a wage when there’s no work.
If you accept a PAYE job after 5 months and pack in self employed you just de-register as S/E or just keep it handy. When you do your tax return there’s a section for PAYE and self employed income.
Cheers Con.