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Contracting and unusual travel distance.

  • 31-08-2018 9:21am
    #1
    BrokenArrows
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,501 ✭✭✭


    Ive been contracting with a company for a few months now and im based 100% at home. They pay me my day rate which gives them 8 hours dev time.

    Now they have requested that i go to one of their offices in europe for a week to work with one of their employees on a project.

    Theyre obviously paying for accommodation, travel etc

    Is there an accepted way in the contracting world to charge extra for unusual travel? Maybe a certain % of the day rate or something?


Comments

  • #2
    purpleisafruit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 508 ✭✭✭purpleisafruit


    Maybe charge them for your travel time at your rate +25%? I've never contracted but I get paid for travel days and a day off in lieu also. If I travel on a weekend day, I get paid for that + 2 days off in lieu


  • #3
    14ned
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 768 ✭✭✭14ned


    BrokenArrows wrote: »
    Ive been contracting with a company for a few months now and im based 100% at home. They pay me my day rate which gives them 8 hours dev time.

    Now they have requested that i go to one of their offices in europe for a week to work with one of their employees on a project.

    Theyre obviously paying for accommodation, travel etc

    Is there an accepted way in the contracting world to charge extra for unusual travel? Maybe a certain % of the day rate or something?

    If it's a once off without likelihood of repeat, and they're picking up all the costs including food, you generally accept the inconvenience as part of good will towards ongoing your good business relationship. After all, it's only a week in perhaps six or twelve months of business, and besides you should look at it as an opportunity to improve your contacts network and upskill your soft skills. So certainly in the past I've never charged extra for that situation (and it happened frequently, usually once per remote contract signed you need to go onsite for a visit).

    If however it's a repeat thing, and that wasn't in the original contract terms, you need to negotiate a change in contract to reflect the modified terms. For this situation, I usually ask to pay all my own costs in the onsite location, and for them to increase my pay rate by a fixed amount roughly approximating the same.

    This doesn't cost the client much apart from tax deductibles, but as you can claim the civil service subsistence rate, and pay out of pre-tax income, it's a nice income bump worth a lot more than it looks on the surface, especially if the client is somewhere like Switzerland where the day subsistence rate is approaching 200 euro a day (i.e. you get to pocket 50-100 euro a day, nice bump). Obviously this only applies if you're operating under a limited company, seek professional advice if you're a sole trader.

    Niall


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