Help on self-employment records

OCD

Yes - 40p per mile. Sorry - it's past my bedtime.

Dawning

It sounds as if you'd benefit from looking at this:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073858805&furlname=startingup&furlparam=startingup&ref=http%3A//www.hmrc.gov.uk/startingup/&domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk

And I'd suggest you call the HMRC helpline for the newly self employed - I found them very helpful.

KiKi

MrRedundant wrote: »

Wages?
If your self employed you dont get wages. You make a profit which you treat as earned income for tax reasons.

Just a point, but that's not true if you're self-employed as a limited company, only as a sole trader.



Hi OP. I became self employed this year. I got all my stuff from Business Link (excellent website) but you need to keep:

INCOME
Copies of invoices for all work done
Copies of bank statements to prove you were paid the amount invoiced

EXPENDITURE
Copies of all receipts for money spent which you are claiming as a business expense
Copies of bank statements to prove you paid the money on the receipts (where you paid by CC or debit card)
A cash book with details of all cash spent to prove you paid the money on the receipts (where you paid by cash)

Spreadsheet everything - the website I mentioned has copies of what you legally need to record.

If you work from home, you can claim a percentage of your gas, electric, mortgage (as office 'rental'), council tax, internet, landline, mobile etc. You can also claim for any items bought solely for business use, and a proportion of items bought for both personal and business use. It *is* worth doing this as you extend your tax-free allowance by the amount you have spent on business expenses, and it all adds up, even if it's just a postage stamp. And don't 'guesstimate' it - you need to be reasonably accurate that you could justify why you came to that figure.

(I live in a flat with 3 main rooms (kitchen and bathroom don't count for business purposes) and I use half of one room as an office. Therefore I use a 6th of the house, and I only use it during the day, so that's a 12th. I claim a 12th of all utility bills etc. I claim 75% of my mobile, and half of my internet usage, for example.)

You have to keep this all for 6 years.

HTH
KiKi