u/Better_Grade3855

I’m dropping my J1 Perm for another OIR35 Contract and my daily standup clashes at both companies.

I’ve been at my first contract for almost 3 months - daily standup and less than 4 hours of extra meetings a week. I use AI for all the code, my only input is the theory around system design/infra. I complete my weekly work within probably 6-8 hours.

I’ve started my new contract and the daily standup is the same time. Haven’t been invited to any other meetings yet. I was thinking I should probably buy wired earphones and have one in each ear.

Existing contract is very twitchy on meetings. I’m sometimes called if I’m 1 minute late which pisses me off and I want to address it with my hiring company as it not how an OIR35 contractor should be treated.

What’s the best approach to manage this going forward?

TLDR: J1 perm + J2 OIR35 Contract. Leaving J1 Perm as it was less than 1 hours work a week for a new J1 OIR35 Contract. Best way to manage meetings and is there any equipment recommended?

I’m moving to a new project that’s running on Azure Container App but I’m an AWS person. I understand it’s the equivalent to AWS ECS with Fargate.

Currently single region but one scope of work is to make it multi-region for failover and blue/green deployments.

Stack is React, PHP, Terraform, ADO and Golang for some scripting.

What are some things I should be aware of as a cloud engineer

Starting a contract soon outside ir35 until end of 2026 - but work is expected to run until end of 2027.

I’ll be embedded with perms and a couple other independent contractors. They are not using a consultancy.

I’ve done civil service work before when I was perm but my entire consultancy managed the work, we had no perms on our team.

I’ve been told by a lot of people the perms get away with murder in the civil service. How accurate is this and does it apply to contractors?

It’s a tech role

Hi all,

Looking for some advice before speaking to my accountant. I have a UK Ltd company and I’m trying to understand the best structure going forward.

Background:

I am currently the only director and shareholder (1 ordinary share, 100% ownership).

Company started in 2023 but made very little profit initially (social media and contracting)

Total contracting income so far has only been around £13k this tax year. Last Corporation Tax bill was around £100.

June 2026 is the first month where I’ve invoiced around £9k and for the next 12 months minimum will be around £10k per month. I also have another client lined up to contract for from September for another £10k per month but this isn’t signed off yet.

My overheads are very low (Xero, AI software, insurance, accountant, occasional video editing) - £1500-£2000 a year or so.

My partner is out of work at the moment. We are not married but live together for 10+ years and have children.

I am considering whether to Bring her into the company as a shareholder so she can receive dividends in future.

My concerns/questions:

Because we are unmarried, would transferring some of my existing shares create a Capital Gains Tax issue and how does valuing the company work or if it even needs to be valued before issuing shares?

Would issuing new shares be a better route?

Would a structure with non-voting shares or alphabet shares make sense so I retain control but she can benefit financially?

What sort of percentage would be considered reasonable? I was thinking maybe 25–33%, but unsure.

Does making her a director have any benefits or drawbacks whilst not married?

Would pension contributions for her be possible even though we are not married?

The reason for considering this is not just tax. Her employment situation has been quite unstable (redundancies/bad employers etc.) so I’d like to build some long-term financial security for her while she is also contributing to the business (bookkeeping, negotiating brand deals, editing, daily admin etc).

I’m mainly trying to understand what structures people have used in similar situations before I speak to my accountant.

A second part I’m trying to understand is how best to pay myself after leaving my current PAYE job.

My current employment:
Salary: £67,822/year
Current taxable pay this tax year: £17,518
Income tax paid so far: £4,002
I expect to leave my PAYE job around August/September 2026.

Because I will have already used most/all of my personal allowance through employment, I’m unsure what the most efficient way is for the remainder of this tax year.

Options I’m considering:
Paying myself a salary from my Ltd company (and accepting that employer NI/PAYE may apply because it is a separate employer)

Taking dividends

Using a director’s loan account during the year and clearing it with dividends once profits are known
For example, if the company generates between £9k/month and £20k/month revenue with very low expenses, I expect there will be significant retained profit.

My aim is:

Replace my current take-home income (around £3,667/month)
Keep enough cash in the company for Corporation Tax and future growth
Avoid taking money out inefficiently
Potentially fund personal things like home renovations without creating unnecessary tax issues

Interested in how other owner-directors handle the first year transitioning from PAYE employment into running a profitable Ltd company.

TIA

Hi all,

Looking for some advice before speaking to my accountant. I have a UK Ltd company and I’m trying to understand the best structure going forward.

Background:

I am currently the only director and shareholder (1 ordinary share, 100% ownership).

Company started in 2023 but made very little profit initially (social media and contracting)

Total contracting income so far has only been around £13k this tax year. Last Corporation Tax bill was around £100.

June 2026 is the first month where I’ve invoiced around £9k and for the next 12 months minimum will be around £10k per month. I also have another client lined up to contract for from September for another £10k per month but this isn’t signed off yet.

My overheads are very low (Xero, AI software, insurance, accountant, occasional video editing) - £1500-£2000 a year or so.

My partner is out of work at the moment. We are not married but live together for 10+ years and have children.

I am considering whether to Bring her into the company as a shareholder so she can receive dividends in future.

My concerns/questions:

Because we are unmarried, would transferring some of my existing shares create a Capital Gains Tax issue and how does valuing the company work or if it even needs to be valued before issuing shares?

Would issuing new shares be a better route?

Would a structure with non-voting shares or alphabet shares make sense so I retain control but she can benefit financially?

What sort of percentage would be considered reasonable? I was thinking maybe 25–33%, but unsure.

Does making her a director have any benefits or drawbacks whilst not married?

Would pension contributions for her be possible even though we are not married?

The reason for considering this is not just tax. Her employment situation has been quite unstable (redundancies/bad employers etc.) so I’d like to build some long-term financial security for her while she is also contributing to the business (bookkeeping, negotiating brand deals, editing, daily admin etc).

I’m mainly trying to understand what structures people have used in similar situations before I speak to my accountant.

A second part I’m trying to understand is how best to pay myself after leaving my current PAYE job.

My current employment:
Salary: £67,822/year
Current taxable pay this tax year: £17,518
Income tax paid so far: £4,002
I expect to leave my PAYE job around August/September 2026.

Because I will have already used most/all of my personal allowance through employment, I’m unsure what the most efficient way is for the remainder of this tax year.

Options I’m considering:
Paying myself a salary from my Ltd company (and accepting that employer NI/PAYE may apply because it is a separate employer)

Taking dividends

Using a director’s loan account during the year and clearing it with dividends once profits are known
For example, if the company generates between £9k/month and £20k/month revenue with very low expenses, I expect there will be significant retained profit.

My aim is:

Replace my current take-home income (around £3,667/month)
Keep enough cash in the company for Corporation Tax and future growth
Avoid taking money out inefficiently
Potentially fund personal things like home renovations without creating unnecessary tax issues

Interested in how other owner-directors handle the first year transitioning from PAYE employment into running a profitable Ltd company.

TIA