Commented 10 years ago2014-04-23 13:17:34 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45937
Striker; you do yourself. You declare how much you have earned to the government and pay appropriate taxes. If you don't and they find out you get in trouble with the law (tm)
Tax planning is hard when you don't have a steady income. I always put away enough money to cover breaking a tax bracket, just in case.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 22:00:55 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45936
Unfortunately, it's just the way it is with freelancing. Until you've established yourself as a bankable name, there will always be that trepidation that comes with the comparative lack of job security.
In terms of student loans: yes, Pebs' amount was a lot (mine was a little higher), but it's taken so gradually and slowly out of your taxable income, you barely notice it. I feel sorry for those who have to go through the US education system and suffer crippling debt as a result. We only start repaying our student loans when we actually make an income: it's literally the easiest and stress-free loan there is.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 19:46:33 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45938
Full time jobs do offer security, but they sure wear you out which doesn't leave much energy for other projects. And at roughly twenty percent income tax in the U.S. before bills and expenses you're already hit pretty hard.
My employer doesn't deduct taxes from my pay so I have to manually set aside twenty percent each paycheck.
Captain has a good idea, you can bank waiting tables with such little effort. Take it from me.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 14:15:35 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45952
Wait a minute, who regulates freelancing? How does the government know you are getting money for freelance work? Damn it I didn't know capitalism is so hard. I'm still a noob when it comes to finances.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 13:04:34 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45950
Man that sucks! ='(
Maybe make your dayjob something more flexible, so you can take advantage of the juicy freelance work?
What that flexible/permanent job is, i don't know, but even something like waiting tables at a fancy restaurant, you can make enough working the weekends and odd days to get by, during the slow times
And taxes, don't get me started. Half of my friends had great small businesses that were crushed out of existence due to gestapo enforcement taxes in New York State, e.g., if you run a cash business, prepare to be audited every year...
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 13:00:20 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45953
I got a job in IT purely from knowing people. I am in school for it as well, but i can say i learned more from the job in the last month than i have going to uni. But yeah, not every one knows a lot of folk.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 12:41:29 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45948
Higher education in Australia is heavily subsidised, but you still have to pay. My loan ended up being about $20k for 3 years of full-time study. It's done through the government and it's a low interest loan, so that's better than nothing I guess I haven't paid the tax bill yet, but yes, I will have to pay it all at once. It's on top of the tax I've already paid through my employer.
Also, I'm somewhat with Urby. I like security, and I also like having a long-term project and being able to improve and evolve it over the years. I could do contract work, but there's not really any opportunity to become attached to a project, you just do it and move onto the next one. That's not much fun for me.
Obviously it's different for every profession, there's probably not many long-running, evolving projects that exist in your industry, Archie.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 12:27:44 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45943
Did you have to pay it all at once, though? Mine is on top of what I've already paid - it's the excess from moving to the higher bracket.
Uni and college education is free in Scotland, so my student loan was only ~£1500 which was an optional allowance I signed up for, thankfully already paid back in full.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 12:22:48 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45947
You think 900GBP is a massive tax bill? My tax bill for last year was double that I did a few largish jobs on the side of my full-time job and that knocked me up a tax bracket, plus it also increased the mandatory payment on my student loan :/
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 11:31:33 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45942
Striker, freelancers and self employed folk pay tax manually, whereas it's automatically deducted from pay in a permanent job. I was below a certain earning threshold, so I didn't pay much at all, but in December i went over the threshold line without realising it, so come April (the start of the new financial year because reason) I suddenly had to pay more tax for all my 2013 earnings that were previously on a lower payment tier due to being under the threshold. It's not actually a ludicrous amount for a whole year - it's just because it all came at once because I didn't know I needed to pay it, thinking I was still under the threshold.
IT jobs tend to care more about qualifications than skill, which i dislike. One of the reasons I like TV work so much is that they tend to employ you based on experience and a good showreel rather than ability to pass an exam at school. I left school at 16 which is really early in the UK, and I'd probably be stuck doing menial labour or serving people in McDonalds because of it, were it not for the creative industries' ability to look beyond qualifications.
I don't know how the immigration part would come into it, though. There's certainly an air of the old-fashioned 'COMING OVER HERE TAKING OUR JOBS' crap amongst the lower classes who are too lazy to actually go out and get jobs anyway (then blame their unemployment on immigrants) but I think in a professional environment it wouldn't be held against you at all. If you can prove you've got the talent, I think you'd get the job, but getting an interview without a recognisable uni or past experience on your resume could be difficult.
TJB, it used to be 20p. How times have changed ;_;
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 11:23:17 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45949
You think that's bad? Last time I was in Scotland I had to leave before I could bring an Irn Bru bottle back to the shop for the 15p, so I had my granddad do it.
He never gave me the 15p, the cheap bastard.
But seriously, that's pretty unlucky. The best you can do is wait for things to get better again. You're still young, and fairly skilled, so you might get even better offers in future when you're able to accept them.
Commented 10 years ago2014-04-22 11:14:02 UTC
in journal: #8366Comment #45951
£900 for taxes? What the actual fuck?
Do IT and similar sector companies from UK hire people based on their past or based on a technical test? If it is the latter, how do they treat immigrants?
I'm asking for a personal opinion because in the past months we've been all witnesses to an unreasonable hatred towards the eastern block of Europe, and I'm just curious how is the situation perceived now.
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Commented 10 years ago2014-04-18 21:54:47 UTC
in vault item: ka_s1Comment #20523
I did it with teleports
Thanks for critiques, i like em I didnt want to detail more because i am trying to develop a specific style to use. Plus it is already at 700Wpoly. We need more FPS captain!
Tax planning is hard when you don't have a steady income. I always put away enough money to cover breaking a tax bracket, just in case.
In terms of student loans: yes, Pebs' amount was a lot (mine was a little higher), but it's taken so gradually and slowly out of your taxable income, you barely notice it. I feel sorry for those who have to go through the US education system and suffer crippling debt as a result. We only start repaying our student loans when we actually make an income: it's literally the easiest and stress-free loan there is.
My employer doesn't deduct taxes from my pay so I have to manually set aside twenty percent each paycheck.
Captain has a good idea, you can bank waiting tables with such little effort. Take it from me.
Damn it I didn't know capitalism is so hard. I'm still a noob when it comes to finances.
Maybe make your dayjob something more flexible, so you can take advantage of the juicy freelance work?
What that flexible/permanent job is, i don't know, but even something like waiting tables at a fancy restaurant, you can make enough working the weekends and odd days to get by, during the slow times
And taxes, don't get me started. Half of my friends had great small businesses that were crushed out of existence due to gestapo enforcement taxes in New York State, e.g., if you run a cash business, prepare to be audited every year...
But yeah, not every one knows a lot of folk.
I haven't paid the tax bill yet, but yes, I will have to pay it all at once. It's on top of the tax I've already paid through my employer.
Also, I'm somewhat with Urby. I like security, and I also like having a long-term project and being able to improve and evolve it over the years. I could do contract work, but there's not really any opportunity to become attached to a project, you just do it and move onto the next one. That's not much fun for me.
Obviously it's different for every profession, there's probably not many long-running, evolving projects that exist in your industry, Archie.
Uni and college education is free in Scotland, so my student loan was only ~£1500 which was an optional allowance I signed up for, thankfully already paid back in full.
I did a few largish jobs on the side of my full-time job and that knocked me up a tax bracket, plus it also increased the mandatory payment on my student loan :/
IT jobs tend to care more about qualifications than skill, which i dislike. One of the reasons I like TV work so much is that they tend to employ you based on experience and a good showreel rather than ability to pass an exam at school. I left school at 16 which is really early in the UK, and I'd probably be stuck doing menial labour or serving people in McDonalds because of it, were it not for the creative industries' ability to look beyond qualifications.
I don't know how the immigration part would come into it, though. There's certainly an air of the old-fashioned 'COMING OVER HERE TAKING OUR JOBS' crap amongst the lower classes who are too lazy to actually go out and get jobs anyway (then blame their unemployment on immigrants) but I think in a professional environment it wouldn't be held against you at all. If you can prove you've got the talent, I think you'd get the job, but getting an interview without a recognisable uni or past experience on your resume could be difficult.
TJB, it used to be 20p. How times have changed ;_;
Last time I was in Scotland I had to leave before I could bring an Irn Bru bottle back to the shop for the 15p, so I had my granddad do it.
He never gave me the 15p, the cheap bastard.
But seriously, that's pretty unlucky. The best you can do is wait for things to get better again. You're still young, and fairly skilled, so you might get even better offers in future when you're able to accept them.
Do IT and similar sector companies from UK hire people based on their past or based on a technical test? If it is the latter, how do they treat immigrants?
I'm asking for a personal opinion because in the past months we've been all witnesses to an unreasonable hatred towards the eastern block of Europe, and I'm just curious how is the situation perceived now.
yayayay!
congrats
Thanks for critiques, i like em
I didnt want to detail more because i am trying to develop a specific style to use. Plus it is already at 700Wpoly. We need more FPS captain!
Thanks
I have almost no regrets.
[edit] reading rufee's comment again, I'm going with 21.