A Bug Free Mind | The problem with the way we are taught to think | by Andy Shaw
How To Make Sure You Follow IR35
What are the IR35 rules?
The intermediaries law or IR35 as it is commonly referred was first introduced in April 2000. The principal reason for the government to introduce this IR35 rule was to prevent employees from being company owners as well as disguised workers- doing the same job but enjoying the tax benefits of a legal limited agency owner.
Contractors are self-employed specialists who work under a limited company which they have created. This means the work under contracts or services offered is on behalf of these companies. The difference between the forms of employment gives the main dissimilarities in the professional tax. If you wish to see how much it may affect you in relation to your income or contract value, then you can use a Contractor Calculator to better understand the effect.
The IR35 rules are very simple. If you run a legal and true limited company, accept all financial risks as well as understand that it’s you who is in control of the company, then you are okay and have adhered to this law. Nonetheless, if you operate under supervision, have signed an employment contract but fail to take the responsibilities of control substitution, use of personal equipments, employee’s benefits, rights of dismissal among others, then you violate the law.
The chief purpose of this law was to curb the skipping of national insurance contributions (NICs) and tax through using intermediaries like the Personal Service Company and partnerships. Earlier before the enactment of this law, people would avoid paying taxes as employees and instead take their salaries as dividends. This is because dividends aren’t liable to the NICs and this strategy would make the worker pay less than what he or she would have paid as an employee. Also Pay As You Earn is not applicable to dividends.
This law ensures that the worker pays NICs and taxes if at all his or her relationship with the client is that of employment. However, you may still claim accommodation and traveling expenses, five percent of the turnover and also benefits from Flat Rate VAT Scheme. Flat Rate VAT plan is an lure that is offered by the government in order to assist in simplifying taxes as well as means of which contractors charge the Value Added Tax to invoices. The standard charging rate is percent, but companies get a one percent discount during the first year of business so they pay 13.5% and what remains is considered as the contractor’s profit. This extra money may add to several thousands of profits and is free from other forms of deductions.
However, before engaging yourself with any form of contract, you need to research and do your own study and due diligence and properly understand these rules so you can be sure of how they will affect you financially.
The penalties associated with the violation of these rules as well as the benefits which you can enjoy to adhere to them. Sometimes it may require seeking advice from a financial specialist who is well informed of these rules. These professionals will provide the necessary guidelines to enable you get the best deal.
If you choose or are asked to use a Limited Company as part of your contracting role, then its highly likely that at year end you will have substantial funds to extract. In this situation there are a number of tax efficient strategies that can be applied to help with resolving directors remuneration, including the use of an overdrawn directors loan account. This is just one approach that can be used, but you should discuss with your accountant or tax advisor as to any others that may be suitable.
Does having a Bug Free Mind Really Help?
Why Your Positive Thoughts Need to Match a Child’s
Children are remarkable beings. When a child decides that he/she wants to walk, there is very little you can do to stop him/her. Similarly, when a child reaches the age where he/she wants to stand or sit, try stopping him/her and see if you will succeed. Children are wired to think positive all the time. In fact, children enjoy 95% positive thoughts in a day, compared to grownups who can only master 35% of the same. What happens during the period of growing up childhood to adulthood that leads to a 60% drop in positive thoughts is still a mystery.
It is often said that you are a sum total of your decisions. Therefore, if your decisions are negative, your chances of growing into a negative person will be extremely high. As people go through different experiences, they tend to lose the natural instinct for success, one that is inborn and live life as negatively as they can imagine. For children, they have 95% positive thoughts that drive them forward, an only grapple with 5% negative thoughts that seek to push them backward. In effect, children end up with net forward movement of 90%, which is remarkable.
You might think that it is impossible for you to be as positive as a child any more. You might think that there is no way you can reverse your net negative forward movement of -30% to net positive forward movement of +90%, which is what children live by. However, as long as you remember that you need A Bug Free Mind, you can reverse all the negativity and backward movement with a life full of positivity and forward movement. It does not matter how many adverse experiences you have gone through. You can replace all the negativity.
If you can get to a level where you have 95% forward thinking, competing against only 5% negative thinking, you will have eliminated the bugs in your mind that keep pushing success away from you. This is the level where most successful people in the world, the likes of Donald Trump and Richard Branson have reached. Have you seen what it is dong for them? You need to do this if you are to have the same level of positive thinking that you had as a child growing up many years ago. Find a way of going back to that level, and you will be on your way to success. For more on this unique approach to controlling what goes on in your mind, check out A Bug Free Mind review by Andy Shaw.
Success is possible, and is never far away from you, if you know how to train your mind. You do not need to keep reading or learning more stuff that you will probably never apply in your life. Simply work on your mind, and remove all the hindering and annoying bugs.
Why Has New York City Banned E-Cigarettes?
E-Cigs are thrown out of the Big Apple.
At a time when it seems as if e-cigarettes are on a roll and their popularity is skyrocketing, it seems strange that New York City has banned these products from public use. New York City has opted to include these devices under the Smoke Free Air Act, thus classifying them together with conventional cigarettes. What this means is that everywhere conventional cigarettes are banned, you will no longer have the freedom of using or smoking electronic cigarettes. This has happened despite the fact that e-cigs do not emit smoke, which is associated with regular types of cigarettes. These devices are known for the seeming harmless water vapor that they emit.
In New York City, you have to be very careful where you smoke your electronic cigarette. This is because of the identity and classification they now enjoy as normal cigarettes. In the past, lovers of e-cigs took advantage of the loophole where this product was never properly identified, and while other smokers were banned, they were free to enjoy this act without fear. E-cigs were quite popular in restaurants, libraries and offices all over New York City. Sadly, even high and middle school students as well as teens from all backgrounds took up this habit and seemed to enjoy it. Now that it has been banned, smokers have to watch where they enjoy their puffs.
The ban has not taken place with immediate effect. The law banning e-cigarettes will start working within the next three to four months. The city authorities opted to take this measure based on their understanding of its negative effects. First, they believe that allowing smokers of e-cigarettes to use these products where smoking was banned, would be counterproductive since it would encourage people to smoke everywhere. Secondly, the authorities believe that there is lack of evidence showing how effective e-cigarettes are in terms of inhaling the nicotine contained therein. Further proof is needed to show that these devices are as safe as advertised. What is clear however, is that smoking electronic cigarettes can save a lot of money for the individual over smoking traditional cigarettes. When using such as the South Beach Smoke discount coupons, you can save not only on the sale of the e-cigs, but save lots over the cost of the traditional cigarettes.
When smoking was initially banned, it was done primarily to protect non-smokers from effects of second-hand smoking. Since the full effects of e-cigarettes remain unknown, New York City authorities opted to ban this habit while research goes on to determine how safe they are for first-hand and secondary smokers. Until Food and Drugs Administration comes up with rules that clearly show how e-cigarettes are regulated, the New York City opted to target safety and health of its residents first. Enforcing the Smoke Free Air Act was threatened and facing great danger by allowing people in New York City to smoke electronic cigarettes wherever they wanted.
Whether the ban by New York City on e-cigarettes will be effective is something that requires a lot of time and proper implementation. For more information please read further information at the South Beach Smoke e-cig review here.
Why You Should Join An Umbrella Company?
Employed or Umbrella Company? What’s the difference?
When you join an umbrella company, you will not be tying yourself to a long-term commitment. You are free to leave the company and do something different should you feel that this is what you want. Since it is faster and easier to join such a company, you should not be worried about facing difficulties when it comes to leaving. However, this is not obvious, and you should check the wordings on the contract you sign very closely so that the company does not tie you down to a long-term commitment without your permission or even knowledge.
If you are a first-time contractor, then joining an umbrella company would be your best option. If you are a first-timer in this field, you will come across numerous challenges that could leave you disappointed and frustrated, such as taxation and payment issues. To reduce the heavy burden that is on your shoulders, you should look for an umbrella company that will take care of such matters on your behalf. With such an arrangement, you have the best platform to test and find out if you want to work as a freelancer or independent contractor for the long-term. To see how much you would earn when using one of these structures, you can use a contractor calculator where you enter your day rate and it provides you a take home pay calculation.
Nowhere does it say that once you become an independent contractor, you no longer have the right to claim for benefits that other employees do. However, this depends on the exact type of umbrella company that you choose to help you perform your tax and payment obligations on your behalf. Ideally, you should still enjoy the benefits of full statutory employment, which include but are not limited to holiday, and sick pay, as well as paternity and maternity for men and women respectively. Choose the right umbrella company to join and you will enjoy all these.
As a contractor, you need more time on your hands to focus on improving and growing your business. This would probably be impossible if you chose to work alone without hiring the services offered by an umbrella company. You never have to worry about more admin duties, and heavier paperwork. All that is required of you is to submit your timesheets and expenses claims, and you leave everything else to the umbrella company. Furthermore, you never have to worry about the legal aspects of your tax affairs and if they are up to date as they should.
HMRC allows independent contractors to claim certain expenses. The umbrella company you hire, will process all these expenses on your behalf, while you keep all the receipts near you and display them when you are m required to do so. With umbrella companies, you get the opportunity to work with a reliable and trustworthy, as well as highly efficient tax partner.
The UK tax system is one of the most complicated and keeps changing at a pace that would be impossible to keep up with, if not for the timely input offered by umbrella companies.
Keeping a Bug Free Mind ….. Andy shows us how!
Why You Should Never Allow Negative Thoughts to Build Up
Negative thoughts are too much. They are like something that you weld into your life, and it refuses to fall off no matter what you try. If you want to attract success into your life, you should focus on doing things that do not entertain those negative thoughts. When you allow negative thoughts to keep rising in your life, you will not have the desire or the strength to pursue things that you consider to be successful. When you are in your early 20s, you are full of dreams and belief that you will be successful. By the time you are in your 60s, your belief is probably gone.
Successful people do not give up on their dreams as easily or as frequently as those who are unsuccessful. Allowing negative thoughts to pile up in your mind will only produce one result: it will kill and suffocate your dreams. Remember that your dreams are in your mind. However, when you allow the negative thoughts to increase and pile up in that part of your body, you deny your dreams the space and resources they need to grow and become realities. Bugs will mess your mind up, and make it impossible for you to believe in the possibilities of your dreams.
When you allow negative thoughts to overwhelm your mind, you will feel that you are stuck and incapable of moving forward no matter what you try. Eventually, if this is left to continue, you will soon find yourself in a position where you cannot do anything meaningful in your life. You get discouraged easily, and lack the fire and passion that you need to succeed at anything. Even if you run off to go and try making money, you will only be handling the symptoms of a major problem, instead of tackling the causes, as you should be doing.
According to Andy Shaw’s book, A Bug Free Mind, failing to tackle and overcome the negative thoughts, is much like taking medicine to keep certain disease that afflicts you under control for the rest of your life. The best course of action would be to go to a professional health provider and have the disease identified, the causes explained, and preventive as well as curative solutions provided. When you eliminate the negative thoughts, you are treating the exact cause of your lack of success, and increasing your chances of attracting the same in your life. Andy calls this Using A Bug Free Mind.
If you have no money and feel that starting to make money would solve this problem, you are in for disappointment. First, identify the reasons that are behind or responsible for your lack of money. Take control of all thoughts that are in your mind. Be the one that gives permission to positive thoughts to fill your mind. Similarly, do not allow negative thoughts to keep piling up to a point where they overwhelm you and bring regression into your life. When looking at each thought, ask yourself whether it is helping or hurting you, and take appropriate action.
Finding a way to not only clear out the negative thoughts, but keep them out, on a day to day, minute by minute basis, is one of the keys to a happy and successful life. A Bug Free Mind by Andy Shaw is a step in the right direction. There are many approaches that are ‘out there’, but you have to find the one that works for you. The end result of having a controlled mind is what makes the experimenting with the different approaches worthwhile.