Re:Google rescinds offers to thousands of contract workers
by decafninja on Friday May 29, 2020 @03:03PM
(#23354163)
Legacy finance tech - investment banks, hedge funds, etc.
Contractors arguably make more than FTEs. If your spouse is a FTE somewhere that gives health insurance, then it can be even more lucrative.
Some of my coworkers in London have told me it can be considered stupid (from a monetary perspective) not to be a contractor in the UK if you're working as a SWE at a bank/hedgefund. However from what I understand, tax laws have changed recently and this is no longer the case.
Contractors at Google and other tech companies are apparently treated as second class citizenry, but my observation at finance companies is that this is usually not the case.
Re:Google rescinds offers to thousands of contract workers
by p_l on Friday May 29, 2020 @07:44PM
(#23356962)
London contract market is an outlier even with UK, which is pretty much an outlier even across EU. With some careful planning, it was possible to exploit the situation to ridiculous degree, by avoiding UK taxes altogether and keeping ones tax residency somewhere else. UK contractor might pay as high as 45% tax, there are countries in EU that would let you pay 5%
With that pay comes the risk of a less strong connection to the company. Which is expected and wanted by many contractors.
Of course, this is for everyone, and not everyone does it voluntary - not getting a gig during the current situation can suck badly.