Overdue Rent For German Flat-Predicament

HUMBUG

He's actually negotiated with the landlord to try and find a new tenant in this furnished flat by placing an advert . Basically informing any new tenant that they can have ownership of all the contents too .

Because he's lived in the flat over 7 years , it could be 4 months notice rent , not 3 as I first thought.

AdrianC

HUMBUG wrote: »

Yes , Vodafone was sued for many thousands - could be 100's of thousands by contractors. The result is that they have just swept away all freelance contractors (like many of the banks). Basically over 6 million contractors affected who would have to take a massive pay cut or just leave.

Such was their choice when they decided to become self-employed.

Jonathan_Kelvin

If he’s been living in Germany for so long why would a British tax arrangement affect him?

Surely he’s not been pretending to be resident in the UK, has he?

ashe

If he is a contractor, he may have alternated between working so many months over there and so many months over here

It is hard to have sympathy on people who have often been earning sums along the lines of £300-600 per day and writing off their lunches as expenses, but didn't have the foresight to consider that this gravy train may not last forever.

The other challenge is that if you accept an umbrella position, HMRC will think well if you are umbrella now, you may have always been.

That said, 500 CV's sounds a bit wild/exaggerated - the utility firm I have just left has made most of its change staff redundant and I have seen them pop up on LinkedIn with new jobs rapidly all around the country.

I suspect its more the case that he is trying to get contracting jobs still, and in competition with everyone else doing the same, rather than being willing to accept the new world order and buckle down as a permie.

Skiddaw1

AdrianC wrote: »

Such was their choice when they decided to become self-employed.

To be fair, Adrian, they may not have had much choice. Mr S was a contractor for many years after being made redundant (he worked for Vodaphone for a while in fact). At that time many companies wanted self-employed rather than permanent staff.



As for IR35- that's been around for a fair old time now. It's nothing new.

woolythoughts

"It is hard to have sympathy on people who have often been earning sums along the lines of £300-600 per day and writing off their lunches as expenses, but didn't have the foresight to consider that this gravy train may not last forever."

I see you have drank the HMRC cool aid.

You are assuming contractors are the same as employees when in fact we often do work for multiple clients and are in fact small businesses.

gingercordial

HUMBUG wrote: »

He's actually negotiated with the landlord to try and find a new tenant in this furnished flat by placing an advert . Basically informing any new tenant that they can have ownership of all the contents too .

Because he's lived in the flat over 7 years , it could be 4 months notice rent , not 3 as I first thought.

He surely knows this, but in Germany it's normal for flats to be fully unfurnished and for tenants to have to provide their own kitchen cabinets, ovens etc, and take them with them every time they move. Fitted kitchens aren't really so much of a thing.

There is therefore a big market in second hand ones as it's a major expense for someone just moving into their first place. Can he ask around or find a local buy/sell group on Facebook, Gumtree or whatever you use in Germany these days? His neighbours should know.

It's also quite common to negotiate with an incoming tenant as to whether or not they want to have any of your old things (for example if you and your partner are moving in together, you won't want to have two sets of kitchen cabinets). You might find it is someone who hasn't bought their own stuff yet so is pleased to buy it from you. But chances are they will already have their own stuff so it isn't acceptable to just leave it - you have to agree first!

As a tax adviser, yes IR35 has been around for a long time but it is changing in April 2020 to become much more onerous :mad: so I am not entirely surprised.

AdrianC

woolythoughts wrote: »

You are assuming contractors are the same as employees when in fact we often do work for multiple clients and are in fact small businesses.

Which instantly puts you outside the scope of IR35.

IR35 is only hitting disguised employees.

woolythoughts

AdrianC wrote: »

Which instantly puts you outside the scope of IR35.

IR35 is only hitting disguised employees.

No it is not

It is assessed contract by contract and now BY the client.

Large swathes of companies are just refusing to deal with limited company contractors for fear of incorrect tax assessments.

I know of several small businesses who have closed in the last two weeks because they can no longer expense the software they use or claim expenses to go to their clients several hundred miles away. Even when they visit two a week - because both end clients do not want to deal with the issue and have just said umbrella company or we're not dealing with you.

There was a problem with what we call permietractors who should have been permanent but the sledgehammer to crack the nut solution is going to result in less tax being collected not more.

woolythoughts

In my own case, I have two clients. One I service full time which is outside IR35 by dint of being French and not caring about IR35.

The other one I service ad hoc and part time as and when needed for a specific piece of software. That is now being paid PAYE only which means I cannot offset any costs of dealing with them so they have been told I will not travel to their site and all support will have to be remote.