My Week: Strategic Change?
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I would be cautious of going full on contractor Accountant FT. It's a fairly saturated market and even KPMG are at for £110 per month now.
You need to consider the UBER case recently along with Sports Direct, and other such businesses. The contractor is very much in cross hairs of HMRC/ Governement and I suspect it's only a matter of time before there is a shift back into employment for a lot of these workers.
The information MTD will provide from people with 1 paymaster etc will see a big clamp down I suspect.
I have about 30% of my work that falls into my contractor packages, although I don't turn work away I would not want it to be too integral to what I do, from an eggs in one basket point of view.
If you are wanting to try and form a Niche within your practice I would maybe go with something less exposed to HMRC glare.
Copying the model of other companies will mean you will always be at least one step behind the competition.
Why change your website drastically? There’s no need to. You can have multiple sites, each site can be for a general accountant, or industry specific.
You can have:-
Xyzaccountants.co.uk
Xyzcontractoraccountants.co.uk
Xyzpubaccountants.co.uk
Etc, etc.
I also agree with Glennzy. Contractors are being targeted by the government. With the continues attack on contractors, and the ability for the government to almost eradicate the industry at a whim, I’m sure a lot of contractor accountants are a bit twitchy.
I agree with the comments above. Once the man in the street is talking about it and thinking it's a great idea that's a sure sign that it's time to get out. Unfortunately FT you are that man in the street.
Contractors are nice little money spinners but 70% of the ones that exist could disappear overnight from a change in government policy. IR35, dividend tax changes, all the signs are there that HMRC are going to continue to put the squeeze on this client type.
7-8 years ago my mates in marketing, oil & gas and IT were all asking me about forming companies and going down the contractor route. Now they are all looking to, or already have, moved back into employment contracts. Tells you everything you need to know.
I agree with Glenzy. Made me wonder will all the contractor accountants do if/when HMRC do switch the fan onto number 3? Is there going to be a mass targeting of all our general practice clients? I hope not, but the likes of Crunch et al are hardly going to retire on the basis of "oh well, it was good while it lasted, time to call it a day"!
FT - have you seen the Autumn Statement regarding the FRS?
Despite another nail in the contractors coffin, is it still the direction you want to take your practice?