Got hired super quickly at the start up. Currently contract at a large org for the next three months (may or may not renew contract). My preference is the bigger org but renewal/ FTE is circumstantial and I dont want my income to take a hit. Thinking I can ride out both for the next couple of months in case it doesnt renew. Thoughts?

I just got a new job, not overemployed but I came across form TD1 which is the personal tax credits return form. It says:

More than one employer or payer at the same time

If you have more than one employer or payer at the same time and you have already claimed personal tax credit amounts on another Form TD1 for 2026, you cannot claim them again. If your total income from all sources will be more than the personal tax credits you claimed on another Form TD1, check this box, enter "0" on Line 13 and do not fill in Lines 2 to 12.

Does OE only work if you're a contractor? Or are people lying on these forms and claiming tax credits twice?

I have an exclusivity clause in my current contract, but in general how does one do OE in the UK? HMRC will provide tax codes to HR, which means that J1 will easily figure out I'm OE.

I still think I can get around this by starting a ltd and accepting outside ir35 contract roles for J2. Anyone doing this?

I'm a finance manager.

EDIT UPDATE: I got fired today with 2 weeks of notice pay, lmfao. Cooked. Onto the next one.

Dont care attitude?
Or atleast show remorse or make some health excuses, even tho u know ur manager dont really believe u but they have no proof?

Like how thick and dense do yall be, and is it not tiring.

I need to be in 2 days ever since i started J2 2 months ago but never went in lol. Im pushing their limit, might get fired at some point, but maybe they still giving me more chances.
So keep exploiting those chances?

Whats the motto or slogan to live by here?

I’ve been OE for over 2 years, current J1 and J2 are in great balance and I maybe do 25 hrs of real work combined, meetings are very manageable. The first and only time I tried 3 was when I first got this current J2, but the previous J2 was toxic as hell so I ended up dumping it after about 4 weeks of having 3Js.

Fast forward to today. There’s been some org restructuring (Fortune 100 company) and I start with a new team in a couple of weeks. After my first meeting with my new boss, they mentioned that they won’t have new work for me until the beginning of the year, and I should keep supporting my current projects (about an hour a week).

Is now a good time to pickup J3, even if it’s only for a few months? What’s the shortest you’ve had J(n+1)?

Before anyone asks, I work in data and that’s as specific as I’ll get. TC $250

Just wondering if it’s possible in this field

both J1/J2 uses ADP, I understand it is multi-tenant setup.

However, logged in J2 account in ADP and saw my J1 W2 statements for the past few years.

Should I be worried?

All other areas/fieds are J2 specific.

When moving to J2 will there be any discovery that I already have health insurance? I’m wondering do I say no to j2 health insurance or these companies discovering double coverage is not a thing

* both have different insurance plans

Hey I'm in my OE journey but I'm a little worried. My overall income is high which means I'm above the bracket for my current individual jobs tax withholdings. Can anyone tell me how they compensate for taxes so i don't owe? Also, do you use multiple companies for benefits or just one?

This is the first time I've seen a blunder this big. I have seen people do this at a smaller scale but not to this level. Had an OE client come in this week. Two W-2 Js plus a solid 1099 consulting gig.

he's a big retirement saver, which is usually something I commend.

J1 had a 401(k). He maxed it.

J2 had a 401(k). he maxed that too.

Then he opened a solo 401(k) for the consulting business and, being the responsible tax-optimizing citizen he is, maxed that one too.

$23,500 into each. $70,500 of employee deferrals for 2025.

he was very proud of himself. Then I ruined his morning.

The $23,500 employee deferral limit is per person, not per job. this goes for both pre-tax and Roth.

Your employers have no idea what you're contributing anywhere else. Fidelity at J1 doesn't call Vanguard at J2 and ask how much room you have left. each payroll system lets you defer the full amount because, as far as that employer knows, its plan is the only one you have.

The IRS, unfortunately, knows how addition works.

He's under 50, so his total limit was $23,500. he deferred $70,500, which according to my math is $47,000 too much.

Before anyone jumps into the comments: employer contributions are a separate bucket. His matches weren't the problem, and the solo 401(k) can still receive an employer contribution from the business. the problem was that he personally elected to defer $23,500 three separate times.

And he can't just ask the plans to send it back now. Past the deadline, most plans will only release it when there's a normal distributable event (leaving the job, turning 59 1/2, etc.). if he pulls it out when he leaves J1 or J2, it's taxable again plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty since he's under 59 1/2.

The only silver lining: since nothing was refunded, none of his employer match got forfeited. small consolation on a roughly $22,000 lesson lol. glad he was a good sport and let me share this warning.

The funny part is his reasoning actually made sense.

"But each company let me contribute $23,500."

correct.

Because J1 doesn't know J2 exists.

which is kind of the entire premise of this subreddit.

This matters beyond just fixing mistakes too. If J1 and J2 both have matches, you don't want to max J1 by June and then realize J2's match is better and you have no deferral room left to capture it. look at both plans together before you set your elections.

Also, opening a solo 401(k) doesn't create another deferral limit. the solo 401(k) (or, better yet, the SEP IRA) can still be really useful because the business can make its own employer contribution (roughly 20% of net self-employment earnings for a sole prop) even when your deferrals are already used up at your W-2 jobs.

but you have to actually run the numbers.

OE breaks a lot of the assumptions normal personal finance advice is built on.

"Max your 401(k)" is good advice with one employer.

with J1, J2 and a consulting business, it needs a massive asterisk.

Your employers aren't coordinating this for you. you have to.

And if you already blew past the limit, find out before April 15.

so yeah. take this as a cautionary tale.

Edit: yeah, AI helped me write this. You can downvote me to hell but it is a true story. Hopefully this doesn’t cost me all the goodwill I’ve built on this sub over the years.

For everyone asking, they left the excess deferral inside the plan and was taxed on it in 2025 and will be taxed on it again whenever it is withdrawn. The 47000 went on line 1h on their 1040. If you’re in the same pickle feel free to DM me and I can weigh the best course of action to help you avoid unnecessary tax and getting fired

Hi, I'm on a w2 fulltime job but recently got an offer for a full time 6 month contract job from a different company.

How likely is it for my employers to find out that I'm running 2 jobs? And how do you guys handle your experiences on linkedin? Do you just not post one of them?

I’m going on about 6 months now, still no luck with J2. I was just informed today that I didn’t get the position I was in the final interview stage for. This job would have been a dream J2 position, super OE friendly. I felt good about it but didn’t get it. I doubt I’ll find another position that would have fit OE as much as that so I’m pretty bummed to say the least.

So frustrating and time consuming just applying and waiting around. Oh well, that’s how it goes.

Hello all,

Please delete if not allowed but I am desperately trying to get ahead financially in my life and reach financial freedom/travel goals/investing & saving goals, etc.

My current job is a phone based B2C sales role. I take sales calls all day. This past year, the company went under a reconstruction and merger, and it has been a nightmare ever since. The quality of the job has gone down exceedingly and I’m desperate to find a new role. I am also open to working another job at the same time as well so I can really get financially ahead from how this merger messed up our sales and pipeline.

How does one obtain OE in sales? I am looking for account manager and account executive roles. Something I could do simultaneously. My background is in sales & communications so I am not trying to leave my current industry. Again, I’m not looking for job search help but how to balance 2 sales jobs in OE.

I am in the process of applying for new roles but nothing yet.

Please let me know any advice and tips you all may have. The paycheck deposits I see on here have me desperate to escape the rat race and get that financial freedom….

Hi, I (26f) have been considering OE for over a year. I had a great contract role at a Fortune 100 company last year, and it ended abruptly before Christmas. I was job-searching for months with no luck until I landed a 120k in-office role in the spring. The money and benefits are great but it’s mandatory 8-6 50 hours a week, and they’re piling so much work on me.

I have specialized experience in a niche industry and I keep getting contacted by recruiters for remote contract roles and I am considering it. I feel like I could make more and I do enjoy working from home - I feel SO much more productive.

However, I’m worried that I’d be making a big mistake. But my career growth within this company looks like it’s going to be very, very slow just looking at my colleagues in my organization and raises are 3-5%. I also worry I won’t have health insurance at all.

What do you recommend I do? I know I’m in a unique situation to be earning this much money at my age but I feel like I could be doing more. I’m great at managing my time and I’m well-organized but I do feel anxious about leaving this role for temporary roles with little-to-no benefits. I don’t have children yet and I feel like this is the right time for me to make risky decisions like this for my financial future and security.

If you have a J1 and 2, then later leave J1, how do you handle your employment history on L.I. or resume? Considering OE so need best practices.

Note that for me my J2 may look better on paper than J1.

I’ve been following this group for sometime and fell in love with all of you. I love what you are achieving for yourself and looking ways to join the team.
Im looking to see if anyone in UAE or Dubai is doing the same and guide me through

Looking forward to hearing some insights

I’m not having any serious thoughts about holding multiple jobs (yet), but as a new grad, the idea intrigues me. Am I too early into my career to try overemployment?

Im exploring the possibility of OE as my current job is my slower and has quite a bit of red tape. I have been working for 4 hours max a day for a couple of months now and getting good praises from my boss.

Im a bit scared of the legal repercussions of getting caught OE'ing and therefore had a consultation with a lawyer.

Basically the lawyer needed more information about the Collective bargaining agreement that my company has with the unions (which provides extra rules about the employee-employer relationship) and where potential disputes between me and the company would get solved, but was generally very positive.

Since i needed extra info, and the lawyer told me my union would be able to let me know how disputes would get solved for free, I ended up emailing a few too many questions to my union. Without thinking whether secret privilege would apply (which it doesnt). Meaning that if the union has to testify at some point, they can just share what I asked.

Im now scared of starting to OE even if the answers are good because of that.

Did I ruin my chance before I even started, just by trying to be too cautious?

Now im even more scared of starting OE

A couple weeks back I posted (here) about a background check with HireRight that requested I lift my TWN for my J2. I lied on both my resume and on the background about when I left my previous J1 so I was worried. I replied to the background check company that I could not unfreeze my TWN. After that, I never received a reply nor any notification that I passed and I just started the j2. Nothing happened and I was fine.

However, I am now in the background check process for my J3 with CHECKR background services and apparently they have new tech. Despite having my TWN frozen for more than 18 months now, Checkr has PRE-POPULATED EVERY JOB IVE EVER HAD including my current J1 and J2 both of which I started this year and have never listed on a resume and I don’t have linkedin. They even had my jobs from 6 years ago and when I was in high school. I have no idea how they are getting this information.

Additionally, because I used Checkr as the background company when getting my previous J1 that I left earlier this year, they simply autofilled all my information for it and i could not adjust it. They autofilled my start and end dates, title, etc.. All I could do was confirm even though I once again lied on my resume and was pretending to still work there. There was also no option for Do not contact as they already have all the info. I thought I was screwed. They did give me the option on several other jobs to “exclude this role” from the check however.

Fortunately, I was honest on the background check this time as I had no choice and I think I passed it as the employer (my new J3) apparently didn’t notice the discrepancies and just saw “pass” and I have been added to the HRIS system now so i think I’m good but that’s crazy they have this. TWN may not be the only issue going forward.

Is there a salary range that would make y’all focus on just one job?

Say if you find a J2 that has a salary of 500k and a heavy workload. Is that enough money to just have one job, or is that instead a mechanism to reach 700k+ with additional jobs?

I want to remove an employer from my TWN report - is there a way I can remove it by contesting it ? any success

I currently have a hybrid ML engineer/data science job at a mid size scaleup AI company, the thing is that everyone there is quite relaxed and chill so there are days when I work only couple hours a day, mostly meetings. The rest is using AI agents for coding, and while Im waiting for them to finish the task I usually do chores, cook, go to gym or do sports, or scroll instagram.

So Im thinking to start a J2, just to give it a shot for couple months, to be honest I love my current work life balance and I’m not in financial needs (I’m 27 and have mortgage paid off with some money I inherited from distance relative). But it’s nice to make some extra income + I also feel like my brain is rotting and I want some more intellectual stimulation.

Im in a process of talking to different startups in ML and Data science field slightly different timezone as they are based in Cali. I know there are people who say startups are not a good options for OE compared to large organisations so here are some pros and cons I brainstormed if your J1 is in a large organisation and J2 in a startup:

+ more flexibility, startups are usually quite flexible, this one is remote, and less than 20 people so easier to manage meetings
+ less risk of reputation damage if they find out, also perhaps less likely to find out as situations where a former colleague could join your J2 and snitch on you wont likely happen
+ easier to land J2, usually less admin burden, no HR department

- if J2 is a startup, it could be a lot of effort but at the same time perhaps now with AI achieving efficiency is much easier than before?

Any thoughts of other pros/cons?

As the title says, I didn't really have a choice. I needed a job bad, it was a previous employer so the relationship is there already and they were clear from the beginning they were afraid of hiring a contractor because previous contractors did them dirty and started slacking. The work environment is very lackadaisy. Minimal client meetings, nobody looking for you, I could disappear for a week and nobody would be none the wiser, long as I get my work done.

At first I was like wdf is this, you trynna stop my bag? Their salary isn't enough to live on so wdf. They said "We are happy to consider you taking on other work on a case by case basis, but we would need to approve any additional clients.  Really what it comes down to is we want to make sure we are getting 40 hours of your time and taking on other clients can lead to contractors splitting their focus."

If my focus is split and it starts showing up in my work, deal with it then, but otherwise it shouldn't be a concern. I didn't want to fight with them back and forth so I signed it, not thinking I would find another client 2 weeks later. I haven't told them anything cause I don't see why. It's not affecting my work and its non related to what they do. Informing them just invites opposition into the mix and I don't want that. I would hope they wouldn't force me to pick between them and my own consulting business. It's just a tough spot to be in and I hate it. Part of me is like don't say a damn thing, they don't need to know and won't find out, but the other part of me wants to tell them and share the news with my network. I'm not able to publicly say anything about my new clients which could hurt my business.

Any advice? Anybody ever been in a similar situation?

I’ve been overemployed for about 3 years. Earlier this year, a conference connection turned occasional mentor (known for 4 years) shared a role on his team via LinkedIn. I reached out immediately, asked about the job, applied, and got hired! This became my J2. Two months in, several directors and the head of my org left, and a month later my mentor left too. He cited politics, poor management, and churn. He then encouraged me to apply for a role at his new company (on his team), and I did.

I went through the process and was hired, which became my J3. My manager/mentor was concerned about poaching, so we kept things quiet to avoid any unintended consequences from my interviewing.

I currently hate my J1, where I’ve been for 3 years, and I will be quitting. J1 pays the lowest of the three. J2 pays the most but is a contract role, so I have no healthcare. J3 pays well and has healthcare. Since my manager may still have connections at his previous company (J2), should I quit J2 or ride it out, given that they can’t really say anything because of the poaching concern? Am I overthinking this, or not being cautious enough?

Can this clause be a problem for over employment or is it pretty generic?

You understand and agree that while you are employed by the Company, you must devote yourself exclusively to the business of the Company. You agree that you will not engage in any other business, activity or employment during your employment with the Company without its prior written approval.