A few little Avon questions...

daisy_jean

Basically, am on Maternity leave, on statutory SMP (yay :rotfl: ). I'm currently 6 days overdue, tearing my hair out! lmao! I'm already doing surveys/shop&scan/dooyoo reviews but will be looking to increase my income over the summer ready to save for Christmas!

Now, I'm not thinking of joining Avon immediately after birth, possibly over the Summer - July/August time, as something to keep me occupied (on Mat leave until January) that I can do around baby stuff and with the pushchair accompanying me!

Right, I've had a skim through the *massive* Avon thread, and have a few questions in regards to a few bits, that I couldn't find answers to.

1. I realise I'll have to register as Self-Employed - what happens to tax in regards to this, as I'll be receiving SMP/technically a wage from my employer - does my yearly tax allowance account for my wage or self-employed money first. Or is it a straight percentage deduction from the self employed money? Will I need to notify my employer of any changes?

2. Do you get allocated a delivery area, or can you pick one? (obviously dependant on other Avon reps) I don't think we have one in our area, as have never received a book, so where I live would be a handy area to canvass in.

3. What happens in terms of orders that people then decide they don't want? Can you just return them, or do you have to pay for them and are 'stuck' with them?

4. I understand there's a credit limit for first orders - £200. What happens if your first order goes over this? Do you have to pay the whole lot yourself, or just the amount over the £200 limit?

I'm sure there'll be a few more, but they're the only ones currently. Any help would be appreciated from current Avon reps!

lozza1985

daisy_jean wrote: »

1. I realise I'll have to register as Self-Employed - what happens to tax in regards to this, as I'll be receiving SMP/technically a wage from my employer - does my yearly tax allowance account for my wage or self-employed money first. Or is it a straight percentage deduction from the self employed money? Will I need to notify my employer of any changes?

I work full time and it doesn't affect my tax code in any way. I'm not sure about maternity pay, but I would assume the same would apply. For your "tax free allowance" I'm not sure which it takes first, I would assume whichever is highest earner (my tax free allowance is taken by my job)

2. Do you get allocated a delivery area, or can you pick one? (obviously dependant on other Avon reps) I don't think we have one in our area, as have never received a book, so where I live would be a handy area to canvass in.

You can choose to a certain extent what area you have to deliver brochures to - some people like to have territory a little further from home/near their work place etc. As a general rule you'll be given whatever is closet to your house unless you request otherwise.

3. What happens in terms of orders that people then decide they don't want? Can you just return them, or do you have to pay for them and are 'stuck' with them?

As avon have a 90 day money back guarantee - anything you can't deliver, or people aren't happy with, you can return with no problem, when your delivery arrives you give your returns to the person and they take them away, very easy to do.

4. I understand there's a credit limit for first orders - £200. What happens if your first order goes over this? Do you have to pay the whole lot yourself, or just the amount over the £200 limit?

The credit limit can vary - it can be anything from £200 up to £500, how avon work it out I have absolutely no idea! But that is the amount you owe avon, not the amount of orders you can get. So even with a £200 limit, you can put around £260 through with no problem. If you do go over your limit, theres a few options - avon will do a more in depth check, and either decide to keep the limit the same, in which case you pay the difference. Or, they will choose to increase your limit, which is quite common - providing you don't have a bad history, and say you own your own home in a nice-ish area, haven't only just turned 18 etc, then they will usually increase the limit.

I'm sure there'll be a few more, but they're the only ones currently. Any help would be appreciated from current Avon reps!

Hope this helps a bit

gingerkirsty

I may be wrong but I don't think that you can work and claim SMP. If you can then Avon is great for getting out and about

I hope you have a great birthing experience and you meet your little one soon, it's hard waiting isn't it!

fengirl_2

Can I just clarify your question regarding tax?
If your profit is under £2500, you can choose not to self assess, but to ask for the profit to be included in your PAYE code number so that the tax is collected in that way. Your employer will not be told why your code number has been changed.
If you choose to self assess, you will need to do so and pay the tax due by 31 Jan of the year following the end of the tax year in which the profit was made.

daisy_jean

Thanks for the replies guys Much appreciated!

The self-employed working whilst claiming SMP thing - i was under the impression, from reading other threads at MSE, that you could, but if you were claiming Maternity Allowance from the government you couldn't. Will check into that further though to find out!

Thanks for the tax information, very useful!

And yeah, am getting very impatient to meet little one now. Twinges galore, but no signs of actual labour yet

lozza1985

Yes from what others have said on here, if your maternity pay is from your employer then yes you can do self employed work as well. If the maternity pay is from the government then you can't. I double checked a while ago myself, not that I want kids just yet, but nice to know I don't have to give up my avon when I'm on maternity leave.