Tax advice

Hendrix_lennon

Hi folks - I intend to get some professional advice about this but first thought I'd pick the brains of a few on here.

Basically I work as a local newspaper reporter earning a £19,000 a year salary.

From the start of the new football season I'll be covering the local football side and a couple of national papers have been in touch saying they'll pay me around £65 to send them through a match report.

This'll earn me a maximum of an extra £250ish a month.

Does anybody have any advice on how I go about paying tax on this income? I'm presuming that I'll need to do some sort of assesment form...

Sorry if the question seems a bit thick but I'm kind of puzzled by it at the moment..

Thanks for any help.

John_Pierpoint

Presumably there is nothing in your contract of employment to prevent you competing with your employer, who could sell a copy of your report for them to the national paper?

Hendrix_lennon

Hi John,

Local newspaper men have historically sent through copy, or lineage, from lower league games to the nationals for a small sum.

Usually the local press is weekly, coming out on a Wednesday or Thursday, so there's no immediate competition with a Monday or Sunday national title.

Mikeyorks

Hendrix_lennon wrote: »

This'll earn me a maximum of an extra £250ish a month.
.

There's a relatively informal system whereby HMRC will code out some sums earned outside PAYE, based on a simple declaration. The maximum they will do that for is £2500 - which appears to fit your profile of extra earning?

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/non-paye-income.htm#4

But if you prefer to account / pay it separately - then you'll need to register for SA and complete an annual Return and pay the sum due 31st Jan each year. Your first Return - to April 2011 - would be due by 31st Jan 2012 (if filing online) and the first lot of tax due the same date. You'll also need to show your employment figures in the Return (P60 figures) ....... as the tax is calculated on the totality of earnings - less that paid under PAYE. Detail here (right hand side link ..... but read the in line 'basics' stuff first) on how to register (which has to be within 3 months of the 'self employment' commencing)

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/index.htm


If you're tidy minded ............ SA is probably the way to go as you're always working on actual figures? And ........ you keep the money longer.

Hendrix_lennon

Thank you for that.