[19:57] <hads> morning
[19:59] <ibeardslee> morning
[20:47] <ojwb> morning
[21:01] <chilts> morning :)
[21:03] <ibeardslee> ohh looks like ZaReason NZ is going to be in Wellington
[21:12] <mwhudson> woot
[21:13] <mwhudson> laptop refresh bonus in a year, sounds like a deadline to me
[21:18] <mwhudson> morning
[21:33] <chilts> mwhudson: what does that mean, "laptop refresh bonus"?
[21:33] <mwhudson> chilts: canonical doesn't supply hardware, we have to provide our own laptops
[21:33] <mwhudson> every three years we get a bit extra to help buying a new one
[21:34] <chilts> oh right, well I guess you're all contracting aye?
[21:34] <chilts> rather than being employed
[21:34] <chilts> but yeah, that's nice they give you a top-up :)
[21:34] <mwhudson> well in nz sure, but canonical has employees in some countries
[21:34] <mwhudson> uk, us, france, probably others
[21:34] <chilts> sorry, I meant NZ-centric peoples :)
[21:35] <mwhudson> but the same is true for employees anyway :)
[21:36] <chilts> that's interesting that even employees have to provide their own
[21:36] <ajmitch> morning
[21:39] <lifeless> contractor is a vague term :)
[21:39] <lifeless> 'employee contract'
[21:40] <ibeardslee> actually employees have agreements, not contracts
[21:41] <mwhudson> i think there's a pretty definite difference between employee and contractor
[21:41] <mwhudson> but canonical tries very hard to treat all it's 'workers' the same way
[21:41] <chilts> right, I guess it's just 'coz they don't have a subsidiary/company in NZ
[21:41] <mwhudson> seeing as it's basically just an accident of geography as to which you are
[21:41] <chilts> right
[21:42] <lifeless> in .au, for instance, if you get more than 80% of your income from one source
[21:42] <lifeless> you're considered an employee
[21:42] <lifeless> regardless of what you and they claim
[21:42] <mwhudson> huh
[21:43] <mwhudson> how does that work if the source has to presence in .au?
[21:43] <chilts> lifeless: they're looking at doing that here too aye?
[21:43] <mwhudson> *no
[21:44] <lifeless> mwhudson: when you conduct business in a country you become liable for their tax laws etc
[21:45] <lifeless> mwhudson: for Canonical specifically, we have a payroll agent in .au (something we stopped doing as we grew, but since .au was the second country to /get/ workers ...
[21:45] <mwhudson> ah
[21:45] <lifeless> nevertheless being an employee then has bearing on payroll tax, insurance and the like
[21:46] <lifeless> so the reason for doing this is to close loopholes where companies would get right up against a tax threshold, then get lots of 'contractors' to keep under it.
[21:46] <lifeless> chilts: I don't know, perhaps. It makes sense to me if they do.
[21:46] <lifeless> chilts: I'm still paid in .au, so my situation is different again :)
[21:46] <chilts> are you located in NZ though?
[21:48] <lifeless> sure am
[21:49] <chilts> heh, confusing :)
[21:49] <lifeless> its fairly straight forward
[21:50] <lifeless> I work for Canonical, they pay me in .au, I do a tax return in .au and .nz, and get a tax credit in .nz for tax paid in .au.
[21:50]  * ajmitch just spotted thomi here at UDS, wonder if thumper is around today
[21:50] <lifeless> I have pending paperwork to rejigger this to be like other .nz folk, but its fairly low pri.
[21:50] <lifeless> vs $other-stuff-to-do
[21:51] <kcj> Morning.
[21:54] <mwhudson> ajmitch: should be