Do you do contracting full-time?
used to for 3.5 years, last year though mainly farting around with games but also some contracting (in Delphi) and consultancy jobs (which has similar liability issues if they think your advice/service is crap). However, cranking up the contracting again for a few months to bring in some instant cash. Contracting is with same firm. Consultancy is with many different ones.I have to pay VAT and employers tax quarterly and have proper accounts done annually. It costs me around £500 per year (plus as I said I do my own work to track/prepare the accounts for them). I earn good money from contracting so the accountants fees are peanuts plus if I did the work it would take me ages and I may make mistakes AND they advice me on cool (legal) tax breaks etc so it's worth it. Sometimes paying money saves money.