Day rates v weekly rates

M

mynamesnotshirley

Member
Does anyone charge a higher day rate than the weekly rate?

A good client of mind has asked me to come in for just 2 days but the associated rail costs for single days works out as double that of buying a weekly travel pass (i.e. £30 per day versus £80 for a week).

I'm hesitant to ask for more for single days, especially if this is out of the norm. But I'm also hesitant to work in a way where my profit is so very low (20% tax, 26% on travel etc so I keep just 54% of the fee).

Please let me know your thoughts.
 
Wouldn't bother. If its a break from your normal day to day activities and your going to be turning a much lower profit then why would you? Tell the client that if they want you in house for a couple of days then cost will have to be covered. Or buy a car.
 
Is it not possible to work remotely from home? Perhaps set up a drop box to transfer files?
 
thanks for the replys.

Cant drive cause its in central London.

I know the project and can't drop box because its huge number of files (700+) I'm working on (I started the project you see). I'd have to go in with a hard drive and go back to drop it off so thats still two days travel.

I've explained the situation to them and waiting for reply.
 
Can't you just charge the travel as an expense? If that won't fly, isn't it deductable anyway?
 
I don't see why you are conflicted.

You need to charge enough to be profitable - so you simply quote what you need to quote to be profitable and the client can take it or leave it (or talk to you about working remotely instead of coming in).

Amanda
 
Dave L - deductible? you mean I don't get taxed on it? The tax on the rail fair is a few pounds (20% isn't it) - or were you meaning something else?

Paul - a courier would probably cost more in my experience of hiring couriers

Vlahakisa - conflicted yes because having dealt with a fair number of clients in my last role I know how badly some can take additional costs, even when justified and I really enjoyed working for this company and didn't want to kill the relationship. I also did get asked to work the weekend and told them weekend rates where higher to which they said no thanks. Despite that I worked there for nearly 6 weeks freelance and it was a good.

So in the end yes, I did explain the day rate was higher and that I'd be happy to work the full week at normal rate - I explained the change in fee was purely down to costs of getting there for single days and that I would not be profiting from the higher rate. Perhaps I did the wrong thing. I've not heard anything back...
 
mynamesnotshirley said:
Dave L - deductible? you mean I don't get taxed on it? The tax on the rail fair is a few pounds (20% isn't it) - or were you meaning something else?
Click to expand...

I have an accoutant to take care of this so I'm not so hot on the light and shade (and I don't travel much in any case) but it's my broad understanding that the cost of any work-related travel is deducted from my tax bill - whether that means I pay less for it or I basically get it for free is unclear.
 
Dave - this will be my first year filling in a tax return so I'm only 80% sure but I think its like this...
... You get paid x amount of money which is your salary and you have to pay roughly 20% (unless you earn a hefty amount).

Say your earnings are 30000 - you are due to keep 20%ish (6,000) aside to give to the tax man. You keep the remaining 24,000.

You may have expenses you can deduct say e.g. 2,000 on travel for the year, 200 on glasses, 60 on layout paper then it would be: 30,000 - 2000 - 200 - 60 = 27,740
This is your earning after business costs so you only pay tax on this amount.
27,740 x 0.2 = 5,548 tax instead of the 6,000 quoted above.

Ok so after my very long explaination if my travel cost e.g. £50.00 and I didn't pay tax on it I would save £10 in not paying tax on it. Its a little bit of help but doesn't fully solve the issue.
 
Makes sense - I rapidly get stuck in a tunnel with tax issues, hence my accountant is periodically my favourite person.

Hope you sort it out with the client, though my opening gambit would have been to keep the same day rate but ask if I could claim for travel costs (this amounts to the same thing but I have a hunch people might feel happier with this approach).
 
If my business costs me, I'm sure as hell taking it off my tax bill!!...

Once a month I tot up everything I've spent and everything I've earned then take one from the other and that's what I work my tax on. For example, If I earn £2000 but my costs (ie; print, hosting etc..) are £1000 and in that month and I've also spent £500 on other business expenses (ie; stationery, phone bill etc..), I've actually only earned £500 which is the figure I use to work out my tax and national insurance.
 
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