Soldato
Evening all. I'm reaching out for a little bit of advice and possible guidance. I appreciate this sub forum sways to IT / tech / software developers but I hope the fundamental principles are relevant in my questions.
I work in healthcare in the UK as a contractor (locum GP), working ad-hoc sessions for a variety of practices and out of hours services. Days are booked usually a month or two in advance but I have one semi regular place of work 2 days a week. I am outside of IR35 with a Ltd Co (co-director with my wife who is also a GP).
Now the outlook in my area for locum work as well as more substantive perma roles (GP partnerships) is starting to shift. The latter is and has been non-existent for several years (hence why I went down the locum route). This, however, is also starting to change and there's been a big influx of newly qualified GPs also doing locum work. Having had a headstart I've built up a reasonable base of clients that have faith in me. (Surprisingly practices don't really value this much and will often go with the lowest charging or whoever simply replies to their emails first). The last few years have been fairly reasonable with enough work to keep me busy working 4 or 5 days a week and enough that I've only had a few weeks off in the last year 2 years, though I don't do evenings/nights/weekends. This is starting to take its toll and my wife and I recognise the need to reduce as I'm burning out. The problem is having regular clients keeps my foot in the door so it's hard to say no to work.
With the sands shifting I have been offered a perma role at my semi regular place of work. My day rate for outside IR35 is roughly £650 per day depending on responsibilities. Now, there is no long term partnership on the table but they're offering a bonus (profit share) as an incentive to join. The salary would be between £44-48K for 2 days a week but scope to do more days should I wish. The profit share/bonus will vary and depend on the practices performance. Now the practice hasn't actually shared what this figure is. My back of the envelope numbers put this around £12-15K per year based on the 2 days a week. The role will be a lot more responsibility, management, leadership and supervision with plenty of working evenings and beyond hours. The plan would be to continue to locum via our Ltd Co on the other days at different practives to supplement income (though probably 2 days rather than 3).
Questions
(1) How have people found going from self employed/contacting to being salaried? Was it sustainable, lack of autonomy.
(2) I'm no expert on pensions as you'll see. I don't have an NHS Pension that I am currently paying into but have a SIPP that my Ltd Company pays directly into. (A little low for my age). Would the employer be able to do this, ideally to keep my PAYE <£50K (Child benefits and our day to day living costs aren't huge). My additional locum work will supplement my pension with direct contribution to the SIPP.
(3) I assume the bonus would be paid via PAYE? Could this be paid into my SIPP as an employers contribution? I'm fairly certain it couldn't be paid into my Ltd Co. as a consultant as it's my regular place of work.
(4) If I do additional work ad-hoc for my employer will this be PAYE or again could it be charged via my Ltd Co. as a contractor/consultant or will this fall afoul of IR35?
(5) Our Ltd Co profits for the last few years has been reinvested largely into Ltd Co. BTL. However moving forward I'd like to continue to invest into my (and/wife's) pension in a tax efficient manner. If I'm PAYE for 2 days a week and locum the rest am I maximising or optimising tax efficiencies?
(6) Does it seem worth it? Taking into account annual leave, the whole package? My overall pay I think will be down but of course they haven't really provided any firm numbers?
(7) What am I missing? What questions should I be asking and getting more information about??
If you've got this far, well done and thanks.
TLDR
Currently contracting, offered a part time perma role. Feeling unsure of what to and what to ask?
I work in healthcare in the UK as a contractor (locum GP), working ad-hoc sessions for a variety of practices and out of hours services. Days are booked usually a month or two in advance but I have one semi regular place of work 2 days a week. I am outside of IR35 with a Ltd Co (co-director with my wife who is also a GP).
Now the outlook in my area for locum work as well as more substantive perma roles (GP partnerships) is starting to shift. The latter is and has been non-existent for several years (hence why I went down the locum route). This, however, is also starting to change and there's been a big influx of newly qualified GPs also doing locum work. Having had a headstart I've built up a reasonable base of clients that have faith in me. (Surprisingly practices don't really value this much and will often go with the lowest charging or whoever simply replies to their emails first). The last few years have been fairly reasonable with enough work to keep me busy working 4 or 5 days a week and enough that I've only had a few weeks off in the last year 2 years, though I don't do evenings/nights/weekends. This is starting to take its toll and my wife and I recognise the need to reduce as I'm burning out. The problem is having regular clients keeps my foot in the door so it's hard to say no to work.
With the sands shifting I have been offered a perma role at my semi regular place of work. My day rate for outside IR35 is roughly £650 per day depending on responsibilities. Now, there is no long term partnership on the table but they're offering a bonus (profit share) as an incentive to join. The salary would be between £44-48K for 2 days a week but scope to do more days should I wish. The profit share/bonus will vary and depend on the practices performance. Now the practice hasn't actually shared what this figure is. My back of the envelope numbers put this around £12-15K per year based on the 2 days a week. The role will be a lot more responsibility, management, leadership and supervision with plenty of working evenings and beyond hours. The plan would be to continue to locum via our Ltd Co on the other days at different practives to supplement income (though probably 2 days rather than 3).
Questions
(1) How have people found going from self employed/contacting to being salaried? Was it sustainable, lack of autonomy.
(2) I'm no expert on pensions as you'll see. I don't have an NHS Pension that I am currently paying into but have a SIPP that my Ltd Company pays directly into. (A little low for my age). Would the employer be able to do this, ideally to keep my PAYE <£50K (Child benefits and our day to day living costs aren't huge). My additional locum work will supplement my pension with direct contribution to the SIPP.
(3) I assume the bonus would be paid via PAYE? Could this be paid into my SIPP as an employers contribution? I'm fairly certain it couldn't be paid into my Ltd Co. as a consultant as it's my regular place of work.
(4) If I do additional work ad-hoc for my employer will this be PAYE or again could it be charged via my Ltd Co. as a contractor/consultant or will this fall afoul of IR35?
(5) Our Ltd Co profits for the last few years has been reinvested largely into Ltd Co. BTL. However moving forward I'd like to continue to invest into my (and/wife's) pension in a tax efficient manner. If I'm PAYE for 2 days a week and locum the rest am I maximising or optimising tax efficiencies?
(6) Does it seem worth it? Taking into account annual leave, the whole package? My overall pay I think will be down but of course they haven't really provided any firm numbers?
(7) What am I missing? What questions should I be asking and getting more information about??
If you've got this far, well done and thanks.
TLDR
Currently contracting, offered a part time perma role. Feeling unsure of what to and what to ask?
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