Caporegime
Cut out the tax man and you're laughing.
Why are tradesmen so expensive
- Thread starter fez
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2013
- Posts
- 9,161
Works for gypsy's
.Not if you work in the finance or tax industry.. the wife works in tax so it means all the work needs to be invoiced and if applicable (ie the tradesman's revenue over 82K IIRC) then they need to add VAT.. so no dodgy notes in envelopes for cheaper trade work for any work we get done. Besides you're saving yourself £, breaking the law and screwing everyone else resulting in larger tax bills.
Not that I like tax or the way the government taxes (tax on the cost of delivery.. I means FFS) and that tax 'efficiencies' supported by the politicians for richer individuals leads to little or no tax paid really becomes a point of morality.
Soldato
You think trades are bad, I hope you don't have to ever pay for a private occupational therapist...
The big numbers aren't all gravy as my accountant would say. Construction is awful really, working in the elements, fairly dangerous conditions, not always guaranteed. Think how many rainy days we have, bricklayers won't be earning, same with freezing conditions or wind. Work is transient and involves a lot of travel, messing around with parking.
Facilities are usually awful, thunderboxes at 9 million degrees with no toilet paper.
Soldato
I often worked for my accountant,before i retired,)Brown envelope shhhhhh)
Give me a break being a house spark is easy. The only reason a spark is tricky due to all the red tape that keeps being put in place by a gravy train regulatory body in the name of safety. That's not to say its not skilled but of all the trades its the easiest.
Current VAT threshold is £85k FYI
You can see not all 100% the mrs says to me goes in
Just to add - when I was offered a bank job previously it was dependant on the financial vetting. They wanted 1 year of all my accounts as I was essentially out of job and not claiming. I was asked about random transactions etc so it's not an idle threat and the more sensitive the role in terms of risk the more they will scrutinise.
Just to clarify, it's the person doing the work and taking payment that is responsible for how they pay tax. You are not (in anyway) breaking the law by paying a trade in cash (even in an envelope). Even agreeing a 'cash price' isn't (for you) against the law. What happens to the money once you've handed it over as payment for the work is none of your concern.
exactly.. when in the trade i often did cash jobs....but little did they know i used to write invoices out after, just a case of giving them discount , people thought they were getting the job cheap off the books so less inclined to raise too much fuss if minor problems occured. there copy went in the bin mine went to the accountant.
also have a vat official in the direct family and 2 tax inspectors so really didnt want the hassle, some of the tales that came back made my hair stand on end...
I think you may be on a bit of a wind up here. I know plenty of sparks and they are highly trained individuals many of whom worry very very hard and often at their own personal risk.
there is a reason the industry is so heavily regulated
It's not collusion though, it's completely up to the worker to pay tax at the applicable rate and in the correct manor and isn't really any of your business (nor problem).
Soldato
I can never get any of them to call back or turn up. I'm amazed they stay in business.
Have a check at the sparkies on YouTube to see why that is. Most of the time the jobs pretty small or it's too far out to travel, isn't cost efficient to take it or they're just too damn busy! If you think about it they don't get time to price the job during the day, and when they finally get back from working all day they'd have to spend more time to price the job and it's almost like working nonstop really.
Just like Bluecube has said above.
I kinda understand it now having watched quite a bit why most trades people would do that. It's annoying though, but just the nature of the job.
It's a catch-22, if you want a trusted trades person you'll get quotes and want a breakdown of costs etc to compare, and to them that takes time (to price it all up without the guarantee of the job) so for their other existing customers who already experienced their work they'll just do those other jobs where the customers have the money ready and just want stuff fixed.
The physical stuff is really easy. It's knowing and applying the regulations that's the skilled bit.
It’s pretty simple.
it is far from being a job that requires no real education, this shows how uneducated you really are about what is involved. Take plumbing. It is a 2 year course, there you learn all the practical Side, and the theory. The theory and the practical both require a knowledge of maths, chemistry and physics as trust me if you can’t do any other there is no point as you will seriously screw up the plumbing. Do you know the fall for a waste pipe, and the reason behind the very limited fall that be done. Do you know how to get the best pressure and what could cause a drop in pressure? Do you know what will happen when you use certain chemicals, or why copper pipe suddenly springs a leak and ways to prevent this all from happening, do you know how to solder, how much to add and why? I know the answer is no. This is why we train and why plumbers are the most qualified in the building trade and then electricians as you seriously don’t want to screw either of them jobs up.
Then take into account,
insurance…. So many customers wont leave you alone or stay away from you and the work, so we have to insure against their stupidity. Also some people are light fingered, including other tradesmen, customers and joe bloggs just passing by,
membership….. people want tradsmen to be vetted and be members of trustworthy bodies, some trades means it illegal not to be a member.
no sick pay or holiday pay….. we don’t get paid this by employers like you do. As such we have to take this into account when charging people as at some point we will be sick so no work means no money. Other times we have to have a break so we don’t burn out, family want to go on holiday, no work no pay.
your on set hours, we are not. We could be open 9-5 to do repairs and fittings. But then we have to go out and see jobs to quote, write these quotes at home, research items people want, find suppliers and order them. This will add anything from. An hour to 4 hours on average to our day. We also have to do all our other paperwork in our free time. So when you think our day is easy and expensive, it really isn’t. It is long and most of it is unpaid.
you are also paying for year of knowledge and skill in fitting items perfectly so they are neat, they wont leak even when the customer does everything you tell. Them not to.
We have travel expenses, vehicle up keep cost, tool up keep cost.
re training when new rules come in or a new product is launched or new tool is designed. I personally are involved with a tool company with others in my trade. We meet twice a year and help create and perfect new tools to make the jobs easier and better for you so we can keep costs low as we wont be there as much, again this is all done in my own time at a cost to me.
we have office costs to be able to do all this for you, advertising, websites, etc etc none of this is free. Like all business we have to charge for this.
so when you think of how much we charge and that it is expensive and we are uneducated rip off merchants doing work anybody can do, think again. Our pay from you doesn’t mean every penny goes in our pockets, the majority doesn’t.