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[tunnie]

Who here is self employed? I have the possibilty of a contract role on a very reasonable daily rate, but its a contract position with 3 months rolling. I have no depedancies, so its worth taking a punt.

I am currently in a permant position, but its a bit flat at the moment, and progression looks uncertain. Plus i have learnt all I can, and be good to expand my skills.

Looking online it seems i need to log everything, as its my business. But that should allow me to claim for things. The commute would involve driving a fair bit, does anyone know how much i can claim for things like fuel? Is it Vat only?  :-/

I guess i could register a company to myself and use that as my 'business'?

Not sure how all this self employed stuff works 

[Lizzie_Zoom]

My advise Tunnie is to aquire the services of a good accountant as others advised me to do years ago.

For six months I went down the self employed route and due to my accontant claiming for all kind of tax deductables, including motoring costs, I ended up paying her £225 and receiving a tax rebate cheque from the IR for £635!!

A real result!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

[tunnie]

My advise Tunnie is to aquire the services of a good accountant as others advised me to do years ago.

For six months I went down the self employed route and due to my accontant claiming for all kind of tax deductables, including motoring costs, I ended up paying her £225 and receiving a tax rebate check from the IR for £635!!

A real result!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

Blimey! Sounds good  8-)

[STMO999]

My advise Tunnie is to aquire the services of a good accountant as others advised me to do years ago.

For six months I went down the self employed route and due to my accontant claiming for all kind of tax deductables, including motoring costs, I ended up paying her £225 and receiving a tax rebate cheque from the IR for £635!!

A real result!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

Yes. My brother is a self employed painter+decorator. He earns half of what the wife does but seems to bring more home

[tunnie]

My advise Tunnie is to aquire the services of a good accountant as others advised me to do years ago.

For six months I went down the self employed route and due to my accontant claiming for all kind of tax deductables, including motoring costs, I ended up paying her £225 and receiving a tax rebate cheque from the IR for £635!!

A real result!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

Yes. My brother is a self employed painter+decorator. He earns half of what the wife does but seems to bring more home

Must be all the stuff you can claim for, which is sounding all the better for me!

[STMO999]

My advise Tunnie is to aquire the services of a good accountant as others advised me to do years ago.

For six months I went down the self employed route and due to my accontant claiming for all kind of tax deductables, including motoring costs, I ended up paying her £225 and receiving a tax rebate cheque from the IR for £635!!

A real result!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

Yes. My brother is a self employed painter+decorator. He earns half of what the wife does but seems to bring more home

Must be all the stuff you can claim for, which is sounding all the better for me!

All the earnings you dont declare more like

[Mr Skrunts]

Start here and see if it puts you off.

You should also be able to gain an assesment appointment with an accountant for upto 30 mins for free advice.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Start here and see if it puts you off.

You should also be able to gain an assesment appointment with an accountant for upto 30 mins for free advice.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/

All that can be done by your accountant so you can just get on and do your job earning money

[tunnie]

Start here and see if it puts you off.

You should also be able to gain an assesment appointment with an accountant for upto 30 mins for free advice.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/

All that can be done by your accountant so you can just get on and do your job earning money

I might farm the accounting aspects off onto mother tunnie 

[Mr Skrunts]

Who here is self employed? I have the possibilty of a contract role on a very reasonable daily rate, but its a contract position with 3 months rolling. I have no depedancies, so its worth taking a punt.

I am currently in a permant position, but its a bit flat at the moment, and progression looks uncertain. Plus i have learnt all I can, and be good to expand my skills.

Looking online it seems i need to log everything, as its my business. But that should allow me to claim for things. The commute would involve driving a fair bit, does anyone know how much i can claim for things like fuel? Is it Vat only?  :-/

I guess i could register a company to myself and use that as my 'business'?

Not sure how all this self employed stuff works 

Cant claim VAT back unless you are VAT registered.  Maybe be worth corsidering being VAT registered though in some case has it's benifits.  (seek advice 1st though)

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Start here and see if it puts you off.

You should also be able to gain an assesment appointment with an accountant for upto 30 mins for free advice.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/

All that can be done by your accountant so you can just get on and do your job earning money

I might farm the accounting aspects off onto mother tunnie 

If she is an experienced qualified accountant why not;  save even more money on the fees!!

[dippydave]

I've been self employed for over 12 years, it's true you can offset many expenses against income.

If you're only doing it short term, not sure how helpful my info is, but here goes:

The 'bonus' of offsetting has its downsides, one being that with a low net income, it's hard to borrow money. My first mortgage offer was only 36k! The other downsides are having no pension, no additional national insurance payments, no holiday pay, no sick pay/health cover etc etc.

There are some upsides though, like more freedom, and you have to have the mindset of taking holiday as necessary 8-)

I don't claim any VAT as I'm not registered, and I think you have to be earning more than 57k to do that.. there are a whole can of worms in that area too.  :-?

My advice would also be get an accountant and put aside a good percentage, like 25%, of earnings for tax and NI (which you only pay twice a year). This should be more than enough and a small nest egg will grow from it. It should cover fees and will grow more if you get refunds. Because you pay tax based on the previous years net earnings, this can happen quite often. I overpaid over a couple of years as my expenses grew but not my income, and I got a £4k refund 

Also, if you can, put some savings away for income protection and long term. This way, you've got dosh saved for unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances.

Keep records of everything you spend, and on what, and the accountant will help you work out which category they count toward! On vehicle expenses I add all of servicing, tax, insurance and RAC costs - as I need my car for work. Then claim a percentage of fuel expenses as not all miles are for work.

I haven't got to grips with the recent trend toward online self assessment, but I gather it's easier, less time consuming and hence needs less accountants time (and cost!)

hope that's vaguely useful....

PS the cost of an accountant depends on how much paperwork you want to do yourself. I like to do a lot so don't pay him much. But as such he fills the forms in, does the chatting to the tax man, and knows which figures relating to assets, capital gains, ......to use!  He's good at kicking my arse to get returns in on time too. 

[tunnie]

Excellent, thanks for that 

I don't see myself working self employeed for the rest of my life, just for a few years to really get my house deposit fund nice and healthy.

Regarding Vat, i should be able to claim on this, as my dailey rate takes me over that amount you mentioned 

But as you say i will speak to an accountant about that, i too would need my car for work as it gets me there. So any money i could claim back on that would be brilliant.

How often can you claim for such things, is it twice a year, or just once?

[Elite Pete]

Excellent, thanks for that 

I don't see myself working self employeed for the rest of my life, just for a few years to really get my house deposit fund nice and healthy.

Regarding Vat, i should be able to claim on this, as my dailey rate takes me over that amount you mentioned 

But as you say i will speak to an accountant about that, i too would need my car for work as it gets me there. So any money i could claim back on that would be brilliant.

How often can you claim for such things, is it twice a year, or just once?

Once a year you send in how much you've earned, how much you've spent which is deductable and the nice taxman will send you a bill for your income tax, stating that if you don't pay it buy such a date he will pull your pants down

[tunnie]

Excellent, thanks for that 

I don't see myself working self employeed for the rest of my life, just for a few years to really get my house deposit fund nice and healthy.

Regarding Vat, i should be able to claim on this, as my dailey rate takes me over that amount you mentioned 

But as you say i will speak to an accountant about that, i too would need my car for work as it gets me there. So any money i could claim back on that would be brilliant.

How often can you claim for such things, is it twice a year, or just once?

Once a year you send in how much you've earned, how much you've spent which is deductable and the nice taxman will send you a bill for your income tax, stating that if you don't pay it buy such a date he will pull your pants down

Ahh so all your expenses reduce your net (taxable) income?

I am PAYE at the moment, so will it be a year from the date that ends the Tax man will come looking for me?