Debt, redundancy and other things...

skintchick

Hi all - thanks for your kind words on the other thread.

I am going freelance (I am a journalist) and am hoping I can earn enough to keep afloat.

I have my lodger's money - £350, and regular shifts on a naitonal newspaper on Saturdays, so that should be another £180 a month, or possibly a bit more once I am self-employed cos of the tax and NI situation.

My lovely parents have bought me a laptop, a mate is lending me a printer, another mate is being my technial support (though he may regret that since I asked what a gigabyte port was!), and all my friends are being emotional support!!

I leave work on Friday, but am technically employed till Feb 27.

Am gonna have to change my sig - perhaps to say how much I earned towards my 'able to afford food' target?!?!!

If anyone understands the mysteries of self-employed tax and NI please PM me!

Peppa_Pig_5

Hi skintchick. Just wanted to say good luck.

fairylights_2

Good on you for being so focused already!

It takes some guts going it on your own. I wish you EVERY success (not just in making your food targets!) :beer:

kathfisch

Hi Skintchick
Afraid I can't offer advice about the tax and NI but just wanted to say (again) good luck with the change. You do sound very focussed and I'm sure you will make this change work for the better.
Best wishes
Kath

postingalwaysposting

good luck skintchick, you seem determinded and with all the people and support you talked about in your op i am sure you will be fine. Just remember though if you ever need a chat advice - or anything everyone on here seems so nice i am sure they will be able to help - good luck :beer:

gilly41

Hi
Just wanted to say good luck- will be watching this post re tax and nat insurance as I dont have a clue either!!
xx

sa1

Form a limited company for say £35 to ensure you are liable for no debts, you may have a claim against you for may things being self employed so make sure you are limited company.

Say you wnt into a house and you accidently scratched a leather sofa which cost £5,000 to repair could you pay it? If you were limited company you could fold the company for several hundred pound and walk away wothout paying the £5,000, an unlikely happening to a sofa but you never know in business!

Say a friend emptied your bank account leaving you with £10,000 of creditors and you could not pay them, if you were not ltd they would take action against you to get the £10k, the solicitors representing the creditors would be b******s.

Claim for business suite, shoes, clothes, 43p per mile i think for petrol, log your trips say 54 mile s to x on feb 26, etc.

You dont pay tax for i think two years after you start trading, start in april 6 new tax year.

Good luck

Debt_Free_Chick

skintchick wrote:

I have my lodger's money - £350, and regular shifts on a naitonal newspaper on Saturdays, so that should be another £180 a month, or possibly a bit more once I am self-employed cos of the tax and NI situation.

If anyone understands the mysteries of self-employed tax and NI please PM me!

Careful about tax & NI. It may feel like you have more money coming in, but you will have to pay your tax & NI next year. So you need to put about 25% of what you actually receive into a savings account for your tax & NI.

You also have to register as self employed, with the Inland Revenue.

The Inland Revenue will help you with this - you can make an appointment for a free session with the Business Support Team - see here.

To register as self employed see here

And more information here

HTH

BobProperty

sa1 wrote:

Form a limited company for say £35 to ensure you are liable for no debts, you may have a claim against you for may things being self employed so make sure you are limited company.

Say you wnt into a house and you accidently scratched a leather sofa which cost £5,000 to repair could you pay it? If you were limited company you could fold the company for several hundred pound and walk away wothout paying the £5,000, an unlikely happening to a sofa but you never know in business!

Say a friend emptied your bank account leaving you with £10,000 of creditors and you could not pay them, if you were not ltd they would take action against you to get the £10k, the solicitors representing the creditors would be b******s.

Claim for business suite, shoes, clothes, 43p per mile i think for petrol, log your trips say 54 mile s to x on feb 26, etc.

You dont pay tax for i think two years after you start trading, start in april 6 new tax year.

Good luck

Firstly best of luck Skintchick. Second your accountant will know about SE, tax, NI etc. You have got an accountant, haven't you?
Third, I disagree with most of the above post. For one you should have public liability insurance just for being in business in whatever format. You can't claim for you clothes except stagewear and other exceptional circumstances as they have to be "wholely" for business use. Uniforms and the like you will get as business expenses, nice suits you won't. Being a limited company has doubtful benefits, most loans for instance you will have to guarantee personally. You do pay tax at the end of the first year of trading, it's just that in most cases the start up costs and lack of initial work means that you don't end up paying any/much tax. Again, talk to an accountant. Now I've written all this why aren't you on the tax forum asking these questions anyway

skintchick

No I don;t have an accountant - I can do maths and I can't afford to pay someone!

And I'm not on the tax board cos whenever I go off this board I end up with people being nasty to me!! I like it here.




Oh - and your sig...it's whose not who's, which means who is, that's why the apostrophe is there, to indicate the missing letter.

scottishspendaholic

Hi Skintchick,

Good luck - let us know how you get on!

SS x