Contracting is a brilliant way to work and a genuinely rubbish thing to learn on the fly. Nobody hands you an induction pack. You find out what a Status Determination Statement is at 11pm the night before you sign, usually from a forum post written by a bloke called Dave in 2019.
So we built this page. Everything here is either the actual source, the people who know the source, or the voices worth having in your ears while you drive to a client site. No affiliate links, no sponsored slots, no one paying to be here.
Start where your problem is. Come back when it changes.
Quick and necessary: this is signposting, not advice. We are not your accountant, your lawyer or your status specialist. Get your own. Preferably before you need one.
Start here: the absolute basics
If you are new to contracting, or thinking about it, read these four things and you will already be ahead of most people on your first day rate.
Understanding off-payroll working (IR35): HMRC’s own plain-English starting point. Dry, but it is the horse’s mouth.
What is IR35? The rules explained simply, ContractorUK: the same thing written by humans, for humans, with the bits HMRC leaves out.
Set up a limited company, GOV.UK: the practical steps if you are going down the PSC route. Takes an afternoon and about fifteen quid.
Our beginner’s guide to contracting: what we wish someone had told us. Free, no form to fill in, no upsell.
IR35 and employment status
The thing everyone panics about, usually at the wrong moment. Your status is about how you actually work, not what your contract says, so read the contract and the reality.
The official stuff
Off-payroll working (IR35): detailed information, GOV.UK: HMRC’s full collection in one place. Bookmark it, because every other guide on the internet is someone’s interpretation of this.
Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST): HMRC’s own status tool. Useful to run, unwise to rely on alone, and worth saving the output every single time.
Off-payroll working for intermediaries and contractors: small private sector clients: this is the page for you if your client is small, because then the status call is yours, not theirs.
Off-payroll working for intermediaries and contractors: public sector, medium and large clients: and this is the page if your client is big, because then they decide and you live with it.
Deemed employer and fee-payer responsibilities: who actually has to operate PAYE in your chain. Handy when an agency tells you something that smells wrong.
Help and support for off-payroll working, GOV.UK: HMRC’s webinars and recorded sessions. Free, and better than you would expect.
What changed in April 2026 (yes, you need to know)
IR35 small company threshold changes 2026, Kingsbridge: from 6 April 2026 the “small company” test rose to £15m turnover and £7.5m balance sheet, so roughly 14,000 clients dropped out of the off-payroll rules and handed the status decision back to contractors. If you are currently inside IR35 at one of them, this one is not academic.
PAYE changes for umbrella companies: the April 2026 rules, FCSA: responsibility for operating PAYE on umbrella workers moved up the chain to the agency, or to the end client where there is no agency. You still get paid the same way. The people carrying the risk changed.
Umbrella company reforms 2026, Grant Thornton: the grown-up explainer if you want to understand what your agency is suddenly so twitchy about.
Getting your contract and your working practices checked
IPSE contract and IR35 review service: included in membership, which makes it one of the better value reviews going.
Qdos IR35 contract assessment: the specialists most people in this industry point at. Paid, and worth it on a long or high-value contract.
Qdos free IR35 contract templates: a sensible baseline if you are drafting your own or sanity-checking an agency’s.
Confirmation of Arrangements, Qdos: the document that gets your client to confirm in writing how you actually work. Underused. Quietly powerful.
Status Determination Statement template and guidance, Qdos: so you know what a good one looks like, and can say so when you get a bad one.
Qdos IR35 jargon buster: for the meeting where everyone is using acronyms and nobody will admit they are guessing.
Tax Liability Cover, Qdos: cover for the cost of an HMRC enquiry. Cheap relative to what an enquiry actually costs in fees and sleep.
Case law, because it is where the rules really live
Kaye Adams wins her nine-year IR35 case, ContractorCalculator: nine years. One woman, one presenting contract, nine years of HMRC. She won. Read it when you need reminding that a determination is not a verdict.
The Kaye Adams case explained, Qdos: the same story with the legal reasoning, which is the useful part for the rest of us.
HMRC drops the Atholl House appeal, ContractorCalculator: how it actually ended, and what it cost the public purse.
Money: rates, tax and getting paid
Knowing your number
IT Jobs Watch contract market data: real advertised rates by skill, role and region, with trend lines. The closest thing to an honest mirror this market has.
Hays tech contractor day rate guide: broad benchmarks by discipline. Useful for the “am I in the right postcode of reality” question.
Day rate calculator, ContractorUK: works out what you need to charge rather than what you would like to. Different question, better answer.
Outside IR35 take-home calculator, ContractorCalculator: what actually lands in your account.
Inside IR35 take-home calculator, ContractorCalculator: run both before you accept anything. The gap is usually the whole negotiation.
Contractor calculators 2026/27, ContractorUK: umbrella, VAT, dividends, the lot, updated for the current tax year.
Tax and admin you cannot ignore
Verifying your identity for Companies House, GOV.UK: mandatory since 18 November 2025. Your company cannot file its confirmation statement until every director is verified, and carrying on unverified past your deadline is an offence. Do it, then forget about it.
Find and update company information, Companies House: check your own filings, and check your client’s accounts before you sign. Their size determines who makes your IR35 call, and it is all public.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: when it applies to you, GOV.UK: started April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, dropping to £30,000 in 2027 and £20,000 in 2028. If you run a limited company and pay yourself salary and dividends, this one is not yours to worry about. Worth knowing so you can stop panicking about it.
Self Assessment tax returns, GOV.UK: deadlines, penalties, the works. Put the dates in your calendar now, not in January.
VAT Flat Rate Scheme, GOV.UK: whether it still makes sense for you depends on your costs. Worth a fresh look each year rather than a decision you made once in 2019.
Beginner’s guide to tax for the self-employed, Qdos: free download covering Self Assessment through to VAT, aimed at people who did not train as accountants.
Our contractor finance guide: the money side written the way we would explain it to a friend over coffee. What to put aside, when, and why your accountant keeps asking for receipts.
Actually getting paid
Help with unpaid invoices, Small Business Commissioner: government-backed, free, and it exists specifically for this. Most contractors have never heard of it.
Statutory interest calculator, Small Business Commissioner: you are legally entitled to charge interest on late payment. Knowing the exact figure changes the tone of the email.
Legal action for late payments, Small Business Commissioner: what escalation actually looks like, before you assume it is not worth it.
The long game
Pensions if you are self-employed, MoneyHelper: free, impartial, government-backed. Nobody is auto-enrolling you. This is entirely on you, and it is the single biggest thing contractors get wrong.
Self-employment hub, MoneyHelper: mortgages, income protection, tax, benefits. Impartial and not trying to sell you a product.
Maternity Allowance, GOV.UK: up to 39 weeks, and you can claim from 26 weeks pregnant. If you cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay, this is the route. Read it early, because the timing rules matter.
Self-employed maternity pay and Maternity Allowance, IPSE: the version that accounts for how you are actually paid, including as a company director.
Umbrella or limited company
There is no universally right answer. There is a right answer for your rate, your contract length and your appetite for admin.
A guide to compliant umbrella companies, FCSA: what compliant looks like, from the body that accredits them. Read this before you pick from an agency’s preferred supplier list.
Qdos IR35 compliance guide for contractors: how the whole chain fits together, including where your liability sits.
Off-payroll working for agencies, GOV.UK: what your agency is legally obliged to do. Read it so you can tell when they are not.
If an umbrella is offering you a take-home percentage that seems impossible, it is. Walk.
LinkedIn and being findable
Most contracts still come through people, and LinkedIn is where the people are. This is not about becoming a content creator. It is about being the name that comes up when someone asks “do you know anyone who could?”
Your LinkedIn Social Selling Index score: a free number LinkedIn gives you about your own visibility. Slightly gamified, genuinely diagnostic, and most people have never looked.
What the SSI actually measures, LinkedIn: the four components, straight from LinkedIn. Useful because it tells you which lever to pull.
How contractors can get LinkedIn to take a shine to them, ContractorUK: written for contractors specifically, on keywords, the algorithm and why a beautifully written profile nobody sees is just a diary entry.
Build your freelancer brand on LinkedIn, Wise: practical, structural, and good on the difference between a profile that describes a job and one that describes a service.
LinkedIn Help Centre: for the mechanics: headline limits, Open to Work settings, search appearances, who can see what. Search it rather than guessing, because the settings move.
Own Your Value: our personal branding session: our live session on positioning yourself as a contractor rather than a job applicant. Recordings and workbook for members.
Stop being the best kept secret in contracting: the practical one. Profile, pitch, pipeline. Run as a workshop, available on demand.
Podcasts
For the commute, the dog walk, or the three days between contracts when your brain needs company.
Freelance Corner, IPSE: IPSE’s own show on self-employed life, with actual policy expertise behind it. Strong on the stuff that changes your tax bill.
Being Freelance: long-running interviews with freelancers about how they really work. Honest about the wobbly bits, which is rare.
Freelance Feels: conversations about the emotional reality of self-employed life. The one to put on when you are doubting the whole enterprise.
She Talks Tech, WeAreTechWomen: women in tech on technology, careers and the industry we are all trying to change. Short episodes, high hit rate.
404: Women Not Found: on the women missing from tech and why. Sharper than the title suggests.
WeAreTechWomen’s wider podcast list: a curated set well beyond what we have room for here.
Our roundtable recordings: the conversations from our monthly sessions, for when you could not make it live.
Worth reading
Longer pieces. Make a cup of tea.
Women in Self-Employment, IPSE: IPSE’s research report, and the source of the statistic we keep quoting: self-employed men charge around 43% more for their work than self-employed women, against a 17% gap for employees. Not a typo. Not your imagination.
Men earn 43% more than women in self-employment, IPSE: the summary version, including the finding that more women than men say they would benefit from training on setting their rates. Which is precisely why we exist.
The self-employed gender pay gap and how it can be bridged, Qdos: what to actually do about it, from a contracting specialist rather than a think tank.
Mind the gap: women still paid less in self-employment, Freelance Corner: accessible, well-sourced, good to send to someone who does not believe you.
Why do women still undersell their own work?: on the pricing conversation we have with ourselves before we ever have it with a client.
Self-employment and the gender pay gap, Kingsbridge: the contracting-specific read, with the market context.
Threshold changes to the off-payroll rules, Greenberg Traurig: a law firm’s take on the 2026 changes, from both the client and contractor side. Useful if you want to understand your client’s thinking.
How the new umbrella legislation affects agencies, RSM UK: what your agency is reading. Know what they know.
Our IR35 guide: everything above, distilled, in plain English, with the bits that trip women up most often called out. Free download.
Membership bodies and where to ask questions
IPSE, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed: the UK’s self-employed membership body. Lobbying, legal helpline, contract reviews, tax advice line. If you are contracting long term, do the sums on membership.
ContractorUK forums: long-standing, blunt, occasionally brilliant. Search before you post and you will find your question was answered in 2017.
ContractorCalculator: news, case analysis and the best IR35 case reporting in the UK. Their tribunal coverage is genuinely unmatched.
Our WhatsApp community: where the real questions get asked. No sales, no lurking recruiters, no one explaining your own industry to you.
Contracting outside the UK
The principle travels. The rules absolutely do not. Every country has its own version of “are you really self-employed”, and every one of them is enforcing it harder than it was five years ago. Use these to get oriented, then find a local accountant. Please do not use a UK guide to make a Dutch decision.
Ireland: Determining the employment status of an individual, Revenue: reshaped by the Supreme Court’s Karshan judgment, which introduced a five-step test. If you contract in Ireland, this is your version of IR35.
Ireland: Understanding your employment status, Citizens Information: the plain-English orientation before you take on the Revenue guidance.
Ireland: The Karshan ruling explained, ThinkBusiness: the readable version of what changed and why Irish clients got nervous.
Netherlands: False self-employment and the end of the enforcement moratorium, Crowe Peak: the Dutch authorities resumed enforcing the DBA law and the market changed fast. Essential if you are a ZZP’er or thinking about becoming one.
Netherlands: Wet DBA in 2026, Smarter Search: current state of play, in English.
Australia: Personal Services Income, business.gov.au: the PSI rules are Australia’s answer to the same question. Official and readable.
Australia: Personal Services Income, ATO: the tax office’s own detail, including how to work out whether the PSI rules apply to you and the results test.
United States: Independent contractor defined, IRS: federal classification, plus a reminder that individual states layer their own rules on top.
United States: Form 1099-NEC and independent contractors, IRS: how you get reported and what you owe.
Something missing?
This page grows because people tell us what they could not find. If you went looking for something and came up short, or you have a resource that saved you, send it over. We will check it and add it, and we will not put anything here just because someone asked nicely and offered us a commission.
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Small print
Everything here is signposting, not advice. Rules change, thresholds move and your circumstances are yours alone. Nothing on this page is tax, legal or financial advice, and we are not responsible for content on sites we link to. Get qualified advice before you make a decision that costs you money. We have no commercial relationship with anything listed here.
Links checked September 2026.