Private Work

[Risteard]

That all depends on the terms of the persons contract. If you are employed under a contract which prohibits it then you have to expect to be sacked for it.

Not necessarily because such a restrictive covenant may very well be unlawful.

 

[richy3333]

To add fuel to this fire, I have a full time job, as a shift electrical engineer, in a large firm. Pretty much the same scenario, I was asked to do some private work e.t.c. In the end I got asked more & more, and I got too worried about losing my job, the tax man e.t.c. I ended up exploring the H.R. route and after a discussion with my boss, it was agreed here was no conflict of interest, so I signed the relevant forms and was allowed to carry out other work. The tax side of things was a lot more complicated, because of my wage at work it meant that carrying out private work would mean I was working for more or less peanuts, so spoke to an accountant set up a limited company e.t.c. The long and short of it was that in order to cover overheads and make the profit I wanted and had to virtually work non stop and after 2 years I'd had enough of it. It got to the point where I had to choose one job over another. In the end I choose my existing job. The realization of going round peoples houses to quote, invoicing book keeping and carrying out the work, meant if I was to calculate my hourly rate it would of been ridiculously low, in the 2 years I did it, the only time I made a half decent profit was to employ a couple of subbies and take on a ton of work, but by doing this I sacrificed a lot of time with my kids and family. My brother in law is a tax inspector and after some discussions with him, dodging the tax man is a really bad idea, but of course you have to get caught, but one phone call from an annoyed client informing the tax office that they paid you cash is all it takes.

The OP should read this - the correct way to approach it. As apposed to those that just want to do loads of jobs for cash with minimal/zero outlay

 

[LVSparks]

To add fuel to this fire, I have a full time job, as a shift electrical engineer, in a large firm. Pretty much the same scenario, I was asked to do some private work e.t.c. In the end I got asked more & more, and I got too worried about losing my job, the tax man e.t.c. I ended up exploring the H.R. route and after a discussion with my boss, it was agreed here was no conflict of interest, so I signed the relevant forms and was allowed to carry out other work. The tax side of things was a lot more complicated, because of my wage at work it meant that carrying out private work would mean I was working for more or less peanuts, so spoke to an accountant set up a limited company e.t.c. The long and short of it was that in order to cover overheads and make the profit I wanted and had to virtually work non stop and after 2 years I'd had enough of it. It got to the point where I had to choose one job over another. In the end I choose my existing job. The realization of going round peoples houses to quote, invoicing book keeping and carrying out the work, meant if I was to calculate my hourly rate it would of been ridiculously low, in the 2 years I did it, the only time I made a half decent profit was to employ a couple of subbies and take on a ton of work, but by doing this I sacrificed a lot of time with my kids and family. My brother in law is a tax inspector and after some discussions with him, dodging the tax man is a really bad idea, but of course you have to get caught, but one phone call from an annoyed client informing the tax office that they paid you cash is all it takes.

Very well put. Gives me and others another insight into what the situation could be like.