This is also true in the United States. In particular, there was a major class action suit brought against Microsoft in 1996 on behalf of thousands of workers who were classified as contractors for years at a time. [0] As a result, almost all companies now have strict limits on the max contract term, which is often one or two years.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp#Vizcaino_v._Microsof...

Similar thing in Victoria too. Larger companies will be a bit more careful and hire you as a casual employee in case they get audited. Some of the smaller companies and agencies don't really care. Sometimes they'll require me to bring in my own tools, which is fine it's all tax deductible. There's probably not a ton of work like this in SA. Maybe some people at Majoran and Hub would need someone short term but I think having so many head offices and dev centres on the east coast a lot of the work would be centered over there.

Definitely, from my experience companies here are more interested in full timers. Also I didn't expect to see Majoran mentioned in a HN comment!

We have almost the exact same legislation here in the UK, by the name of IR35.

In essence it means that you can't take paid leave or sick days, otherwise it counts as "disguised employment". Another interesting requirement is that you must have at lest one other person in your company who can reasonably stand in for you and perform your work, if needs be.

If caught on the wrong side of the law then you must return the tax you've saved along with paying a fine. Not nice.

Just want to clarify a point - you don't have to employ the person who stands in for you, you just need to be contractually allowed to do so. Otherwise, your client is paying for _you_, not the service you're providing (e.g. [technology] developer).

Generally it's just a matter of how the contract is worded. You need to reserve the sort of rights a business would reserve.

Ah, I didn't realise this. Thank you!

This is true in the United States as well, exactly as you describe it.

in that case you probably also get even more money as a contractor, and you can deduct the cost of your equipment as a business expense.