Compromise Agreements Tax Implications

By Fiona E Martin

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy   

Compromise Agreements are legally binding agreements between an employer and an employee, sometimes referred to as a termination settlement. They allow for a clean break of the employment relationship where the employee waives their right to bring claims in return for compensation.

The first £30,000 of compensation is generally tax free. However, this is not the case with every Compromise Agreement. How much of a payment is taxable depends on the basis on which it is paid. So if you are giving or receiving compensation in a Compromise Agreement it pays to look at ways to make it as tax efficient as possible. Here are some of the options.

Salary and benefits to date
All payments made up to the point the contract of employment ends are subject to normal tax and national insurance deductions.

Payment in lieu of holiday
Payments in lieu of holiday are taxable.

Pay in lieu of notice
Where such payments are allowed for in the employee's contract of employment or employee handbook they are taxable. Where they are not, they may be paid gross and count towards the £30,000 exemption.

However, where an employer routinely makes payments in lieu of notice - even if it is not part of the employment contract - HM Revenue & Customs may consider tax should be deducted.

Payments for restrictive covenants and confidentiality obligations
An employer may restrict an employee from acting in competition, or approaching customers or employees after they leave. If the contract contains enforceable restrictive covenants, the employer can rely on these if it has not breached the contract when terminating the employment.

However, if the contract does not have these provisions, or they are unenforceable, the employer can seek new restrictions. To make these binding in law a "consideration" must be paid - usually a small sum of £100-£200. This is taxable and liable to national insurance contributions. The same applies to payments associated with a confidentiality clause.

Compensatory and ex-gratia payments
The first £30,000 of compensatory, ex gratia (non-contractual) payments for loss of office or employment is tax exempt.

Redundancy Compromise Agreement
Statutory and contractual redundancy payments fall within the £30,000 exemption.

Pension contributions
Direct payments into a pension scheme are not taxable unless they exceed annual and lifetime contribution allowances.

Outplacement costs
Contributions to the cost of outplacement counselling or training are not taxable. Usually paid directly by the employer, they do not count towards the £30,000 exemption.

Legal costs
The employer usually pays the employee's legal costs. This does not count towards the £30,000 exemption as long as the fees are solely in connection with termination of employment.

Sums exceeding the £30,000 exemption
If the Compromise Agreement compensation exceeds the £30,000 exemption, tax is deducted at basic rate on the additional amount.

Job Interview Secrets and Best Practices That Land Job

By Steve Wong

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy    

Some job seekers always land more jobs than the others because they know a couple of job interview secrets that most people do not know. These secrets indeed are not really a "secret" because they're just the things often neglected by majority of job seekers.

Here are some best practices to help you ace in your next job interview.

1. Don't Wing It

Always attend job interviews with proper preparation. The areas you should spend time to explore are as follows:

• Research the company's information and know its products, services, recent news, goals, future plans, mission statement, work cultures, etc. Check out its web site, visit the local library and call the employer to find out the necessary information.
• Know your abilities, accomplishments and experiences as well as how you can contribute to the prospective employer. Link them with some examples.
• Find out what the key interview questions are and prepare for appropriate answers.

The level of your preparation demonstrates to the interviewer how hardworking, proactive and thorough you are on critical task like this.

2. Practice your interview questions and answers

Practice makes perfect. You should go through the questions and answers with a friend a few times until you feel comfortable to walk into the interview room. Show the employer you're confident to bring your experiences and abilities to the company.

3. Show your interest and enthusiasm on the job and the company

The first few minutes often determines if you can make it to the second interview and land the job. Make a good first impression and show your interest on the job position by using your body language, asking intelligent questions and sending a thank you note to the interviewer to reiterate your enthusiasm about the job and company.

4. Important practices

Effective Job seekers also carry out a few other job interview secrets or best practices to make them stand out from the crowd.

• Arrive 15 minutes early to check your appearance and scan the reception area for latest company news. Also, you do not want an upset employer to interview you.
• Be well-groomed and dress appropriately. Wear smart and simple, but suit the environment of the particular job.
• Be friendly and polite. Give a firm handshake to the interviewer and greet him or her by the last name with a friendly smile.
• Establish an effective two-way communication and try to agree to what the interviewer tells you.
• Don't respond questions with a "yes," or "no." Your answer should be about a minute long.
• Be attentive to the hiring manager and make good eye contact when replying his or her questions.
• Don't chew gum, smoke, or eat garlic before the meeting.
• Don't bad mouth your previous employer even if you're not happy with the company or the job.
• Don't touch on salary or benefits in the first interview.

10 Tips When Searching For A Job

By James A. Russell

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy  

1. Know Yourself
The first thing that you should do is figure out your interests. Use these interests to set you apart from the crowd.

2. Take a career assessment test
These are available numerous places online. After you take this test, you should get a good idea about what you like in a job environment.

3. Talk to other people
Look to friends, co-workers, and family to tell you what you do best. They can give you a different perspective from your own. Hearing your strengths and weakness from other people can help you determine what kind of job you should be looking for.

4. What are YOU looking for?
Compare different aspects of a job. Are you more interested in a job that you are going to enjoy or a high salary? Are you planning to have the weekends off to spend time with your friends and family?

5. Take charge
Nowadays, you are likely to bounce around from company to company. On average, you are likely to work for five companies during your working career. Pick a certain career track and try to stay on that path.

6. Do you fit in the company?
Agreeing with the ideals and goals of the company you are working for is very important. Take note of what the company stands for and compare that with your own ideals. You should feel comfortable working in a company. Make sure that the company works for you, not only that you work for the company.

7. Keep Your Options Open
Choosing a new career path can lead to a lot of change, both personally and professionally. There are tons of opportunities available to you.

8. The key is balance.
When you are in your 20s and 30s, you spend a lot of time on the job. As you get into your 40s, your personal life will become more important. It is important to find a career that will allow you to balance you work and personal life.

9. Don't Hang Around
If you are not satisfied with your career, do not hesitate to look around for another one. Make sure that you are in control of your career and that you are doing something that you want to be doing.

10. Make a schedule
The best way to stay organized is by making a schedule. If you are applying for many different jobs and get some interviews, you are going to want to keep track of everything that is going on. The best way to do this is by creating a schedule.

Free Job Search Resources

By Melanie Szlucha

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

Why are some people so resistant to getting help? Why do we think that we are experts in everything? Financial planners are experts at figuring out where their clients should invest, there are people who specialize in organizing homes, and even travel agents who have a wealth of knowledge available to help you plan your next vacation. Yet many of us still feel capable of going it alone. Either because we think it's too expensive to hire a coach, or we don't think there's anything they could tell us that we don't already know.

Same holds true in my line of work. The most unfortunate are the people who know they need help, but it's impossible for them to afford it. I get many requests for free job search and resume resources, so I thought I'd include them here. Are they as good as one-on-one coaching? I'm sure that it varies by program and the number of people who participate but if you're stuck as to even how to start a resume or your job search, these are great places to start.

College Career Centers. These offices are an incredible wealth of information. If you're currently in college, or even an alum, don't hesitate to contact them to investigate what services they offer. Many have access to sophisticated assessment tests that can help you decide what jobs you're best suited to based on your experience, interests and personality. They will help you research and identify some target companies for your job search, or even find other places to search for a job. Want to get into a very specific field, or have a challenging career-related situation that you need advice on? These are the places to go. You've spent 4 years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars, this office is really where the rubber meets the road to get you to the next phase.

http://www.job-hunt.org - I found this site while doing some research this weekend. It's got a pretty extensive listing by state of free resources and job support groups. I live in CT, and saw a few on there that I did not know about. Resources will vary by state, but what I saw included everything from resume writing, job interviewing, networking and company research.

Your local library. There's two in my area who have conducted workshops on using the library in your job hunt. Librarians are a wealth of resources-because that's their job-to help you efficiently find what you're looking for. They can direct you to company databases, books on resume writing, and may be another source of free workshops you can attend. Chat one up, and I'm sure you'll be glad you did. They're there to help you.

I hope that helps. Many of these places offer services such as assessments, company information and job boards that I cannot possibly have access to. When you're ready to improve your resume or polish up those interviewing skills, shoot me an email or give me a call. We can chat on the phone for about 10 minutes (no charge), and I'm happy to offer you an assessment of how I can help you get to the next stage of your career.

Finding Freelance Jobs Online

By Jennifer Polk

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy

 

Finding Freelance Work Online
Freelance jobs is when a person sells services to employers without a long-term commitment. You would be under an independent contract. Normally being a freelance worker means that you would be working off the books. When you work off the books, you get paid "In hand" or in this case through pay pal or check in mail, depending on your own personally situation and the terms of that job.
a lot of people would prefer this option in case they are currently receiving unemployment benefits and would like to get extra money on top of that. Or for some reason you may not have a social security number which means you cant work in the united states. As a result Freelance "off the books" work would be better for you.
THE PROS
Off the books work (Tax man don't have to know)
You get your full pay all at once. With Freelance jobs the minute your done with the assignment you get paid immediately. The best part about this is, how fast you get paid is up to you. If you have to write an article for a blog and it pays you $50 to complete it in 1 week. For most of us we can write an article in about 2 hours instead of 1 week. So the moment your done, you get paid.
THE CONS
Not steady work - since this is freelance work you get paid once you complete the job. And when your job is done, then that's it. You either have to find another freelance job on your own or maybe the person you were working with will refer you to someone else. Better yet that same person can have another job already lined up for you. So its very important to make a good impression, get the job done on time or early and make sure you do good work.
 
If your the type of person that has programming skills, great writing skills, blog designers, website designers, research shoppers, travel writing, business writing and much more. There are lots of great freelance jobs online that will help you earn extra money or maybe start a new career. The hard part is trying to find the best one for your talents and finding a replicable job board for people that are looking.
Some great sources to find freelance jobs would be to search it on large search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. But what a lot of people don't know is that you can find pretty good jobs in Craiglist as well. Craigslist is a very large classified ad website. They pretty much have everything available. Jobs, services and you can buy things etc. The best way to search for freelance work on Craigslist would be to visit the site and on the left hand side there's a search bar. All you have to do is type in freelance, or freelance jobs and maybe the state you live in and everything will come up for you. However while searching on this website please be careful. There are lots of "Jobs" out there that aren't really jobs at all. They just want you to submit the information, like on a resume for example and from there they use your information for what they really want. As a result you never hear from them again.
Just be mindful that not everyone on Craigslist is there to get you a job. A good amount of them are there to help themselves. Regardless that is still a wonderful source to find some freelance work online. Another good place to find freelance work would be on Job Boards. Now Job Boards is pretty much a fancy way of saying the "Help Wanted Ad" but for the internet. A job board is a place you go to online that has employers looking for employees on a contract basis (Freelance). Only freelance jobs are listed on the job board therefore you don't have to go through the extra hassle of filtering out freelance work from a regular job. As a result you can find your potential work much quicker and make your searching more effective.