Registering as self-employed for a period already finished.

Knitta

Can I register as self-employed for a period of a month 5 months ago? I am no longer self-employed but want to pay the NI contributions for that period, is this possible?

I am aware of the possibility of a penalty, how much could this be?

no-oneknowsme

I think if you added more info to your post then others may be able to assist you better.

Things you would need to include would be how much you earned in the month of self employment , was this the only employment you were undertaking at the time etc etc.

As far as i know you will get a fine of £100 for not registering the fact that you were self employed with HMRC . It used to be that you had 3 months to register however i believe that it is now worded that you have to register within a reasonable amount of time and there is a box on the registration form where you explain the delay in registering.

You will owe class 2 NIC for the month , i believe that would be £2.30 x 4

If any tax or class 4 NIC is owed for the month of self employment as long as you pay it before the deadline of 31st Jan 2012 then as far as i know you wont receive any fine as you are still paying the tax owed in the year that it becomes due for payment.

Why not register your self employment online and then you can also register to file the tax return online too ? Its pretty simple to do.

Post up some further details and one of the more knowledgable posters will see you right.

Gertie_Walker

Unless you made a profit of over £5000 for that months work, you wont be liable to class 2 NIC as you will be under the small earnings exemption.

My advice would be to ring your tax office in April and tell them you need to self assess for 2010/11 only and declare this income as casual fees. You then have until 31 Jan 2012 to pay the tax and its all done and dusted - no fines, etc.

dcooper_3

QUOTE:

"It used to be that you had 3 months to register however i believe that it is now worded that you have to register within a reasonable amount of time"

END QUOTE


I have been to accountants and more importantly rang HMRC and visited their Dorset House, Stamford Street, London office to be told that you do have 3 Months to register as self-employed.

Personally, I would not like to be given only one month to test the water of my business. And from what I have gathered HMRC do not like the idea as well that people start self-employment on a wim. Hence the 3 Months.

I even told HMRC I would like to start as self-employed on "such-and-such" a day and they said I cannot....

ME: I want to start today

HMRC: When was your first job (i.e. invoice)?

ME: I haven't done one yet, I am just informing you that I would like to start today.

HMRC: Because you have not done anything we cannot proceed...bye!

The above is the rough outline of my conversation.

Getting to the point of the OP. Unless you earnt thousands of pounds within that month, I do not think you should mention it (IMHO) simply because it may cost you more to declare. Your NIC would be £2.40 or so per week (say £10 for that month) plus tax on the profits versus £100 fine.

Regards

DCooper

no-oneknowsme

DCOOPER - Having filled in the forms to register my OH as self employed i can assure you that the form asks the date upon which self employment began . You are then asked to explain any delay in registering .

The following info is copied from HMRC's webpage (cant do links)

When to register

You should tell us as soon as you start working for yourself (you can’t register in advance). If you delay registering, you may have to pay an initial penalty. You’ll also have to pay further penalties if payments become due and have not been met.

no-oneknowsme

dcooper wrote: »

QUOTE:

"It used to be that you had 3 months to register however i believe that it is now worded that you have to register within a reasonable amount of time"

END QUOTE


I have been to accountants and more importantly rang HMRC and visited their Dorset House, Stamford Street, London office to be told that you do have 3 Months to register as self-employed.

Personally, I would not like to be given only one month to test the water of my business. And from what I have gathered HMRC do not like the idea as well that people start self-employment on a wim. Hence the 3 Months.

I even told HMRC I would like to start as self-employed on "such-and-such" a day and they said I cannot....

ME: I want to start today

HMRC: When was your first job (i.e. invoice)?

ME: I haven't done one yet, I am just informing you that I would like to start today.

HMRC: Because you have not done anything we cannot proceed...bye!

The above is the rough outline of my conversation.

Getting to the point of the OP. Unless you earnt thousands of pounds within that month, I do not think you should mention it (IMHO) simply because it may cost you more to declare. Your NIC would be £2.40 or so per week (say £10 for that month) plus tax on the profits versus £100 fine.

Regards

DCooper

Gertie quite rightly pointed out that the OP wouldnt be liable for class 2 NIC as the business is unlikely to have earned enough in the one month of trading .

Becles

Gertie_Walker wrote: »

Unless you made a profit of over £5000 for that months work, you wont be liable to class 2 NIC as you will be under the small earnings exemption.

You don't have to claim small earnings exemption if you earn less than £5k pa.

You can choose to pay Class 2 NI and it can be prudent to do that. I earned under £5k in the year before having my baby, but chose to pay Class 2 NI, so I got full maternity allowance (approx £120 a week), as opposed to the small earnings certificate rate (£27 a week). It's a big difference and it was worth paying the NI.

dcooper_3

Hi no-oneknowsme, there must of been a delay with my browser or something because as I posted I then saw Gertie's post (which wasn't being displayed before). Anyway, point taken.

As with the Registration bit.....As said, I went up to dorset house and accountants just last week to check this, so obviously they must be giving out false info? for whatever reason(s). But even if I would not believe them, I would of believed the two separate accountants (from different parts of London). As is it, I will take your word for it that things have changed.

Regards

DCooper

no-oneknowsme

I suppose the start date for all different types of self employed person could be different .

Eg - a self employed hairdresser cuts her first clients hair and gets paid that day and so that hairdresser would be making profit from day 1 .

A self employed builder may take on a building job which is going to last 8 weeks , he wouldnt get paid until the end of the 8 weeks and so yes , in theory he is self employed from the day he starts on the job but until he gets paid he is not "earning".

Maybe this is what the 2 accountants and HMRC were referring to in your case Dcooper?