SELF EMPLOYMENT in more than one job...

anma2678

Hello everyone, I hope someone out there can help me.

I am just starting up as a professional singer, and also training to be a diet consultant, both of which will be on a self employed basis.

I also work for my local pub, and although I'm on the books now, the manager would like me to start with her on a self employed basis.... not really sure how this works...

Do I have to create an invoice for the pub job to be paid....

Can I be self employed in more than 1 job, or will it be a tax nightmare ???

The diet consulting job will have it's own forms and whatnot, so should be quite straighforward... but for the singing and barwork, I'm lost !!

Please let me know what I have to do... i.e registering self employed... how to know how much to keep back for tax and NI ( how do I pay NI)...

Sorry for all of the garbled quesitons.. I really have no clue how it will all work !!!

KiKi

(Assuming you're going to be self-employed as a sole trader...)

You can do whatever you like as a SE person - you are taxed on the total amount of your earnings, regardless of how many jobs they come from.

You MUST register as SE with HMRC as soon as you start SE work. You will get a letter telling you how much NI to pay...there are two lots. One is paid weekly (usually at £2.40 per week). The other is paid when you pay your tax at the end of the financial year.

You complete a self-assessment tax form after April 6th where you put in your earnings, expenses, any income from PAYE work etc for that year. HMRC work out what you owe with regards to income tax and NI and will send you a bill. As a rule of thumb, if you don't think you'll hit the higher tax bracket, you should put aside 28% of what you earn for this (20% for tax, 8% for NI). In reality it's likely to be less than that, as you don't pay tax and NI on everything you earn, and you'll probably have expenses.

When you do SE work you send an invoice for all work done to the employer, who should then pay within 30 days (it's often longer!). I strongly recommend that you read through the Business Link website to understand all this before you launch into SE.

With regards to your pub job, you could do it either SE or PAYE. However, depending on the nature of the work, there are rules around what constitutes employment and self-employment...it's not up to you or the employer to decide. Some employers want you to be SE as it means they don't pay your tax or NI, you get no employment protection, no annual leave, sick leave etc. Again, the Business Link website highlights this and helps you to understand it. You might want to work at the pub PAYE and then the rest SE.

HTH
KiKi

anma2678

You star !!! Thanks so much for all of the info. I was a bit wary of the fact that the pub wanted me to come off the books... I think I'll just stick with being on the books. I only get £60 a week from them anyways which would work out to be just under half of my tax allowance for the year. I vaguely remember something about being able to allocate certain amounts of you tax code to different jobs. Would it be worth allocating 3120 of my tax code to the pub job, and then having the other portion allocated to my SE earnings?

With the singing, I'm paid on the night of the gig, so do I not need to complete an invoice, just a receipt maybe ??

KiKi

anma2678 wrote: »

You star !!! Thanks so much for all of the info. I was a bit wary of the fact that the pub wanted me to come off the books... I think I'll just stick with being on the books. I only get £60 a week from them anyways which would work out to be just under half of my tax allowance for the year. I vaguely remember something about being able to allocate certain amounts of you tax code to different jobs. Would it be worth allocating 3120 of my tax code to the pub job, and then having the other portion allocated to my SE earnings?

Really sorry, I don't know the answer to this - someone else will, though.

With the singing, I'm paid on the night of the gig, so do I not need to complete an invoice, just a receipt maybe ??

If you've been paid you need to write an invoice for your records. I *think* I'm correct in saying you don't even need to send it to them, but you need to have it on your PC / paper copy for your own files in case HMRC want to check your earnings against your invoicing. If you're giving them a receipt anyway, you could just hand them the invoice and take the payment, end of.

For all record keeping you need evidence of your expenses and income. So you need invoices (for income) and receipts (for expenses). You may find having a separate bank account for all money coming in and out helps - but you are not required to have a business bank account.

HTH
KiKi

Savvy_Sue

anma2678 wrote: »

You star !!! Thanks so much for all of the info. I was a bit wary of the fact that the pub wanted me to come off the books... I think I'll just stick with being on the books. I only get £60 a week from them anyways which would work out to be just under half of my tax allowance for the year.

I think they are pulling a fast one, asking you to be self employed. They will want YOU to turn up when required, not some random friend of yours, for example. Take a look at this.

anma2678 wrote: »

I vaguely remember something about being able to allocate certain amounts of you tax code to different jobs. Would it be worth allocating 3120 of my tax code to the pub job, and then having the other portion allocated to my SE earnings?

If you had two employers, you could do this. As you have one employer (the pub) and two lines of self employment, it's quite simple: on your self assessment form you put down what your earnings from employment have been (as on your P60 issued at the end of each tax year), and what tax you have paid. Then there's a section for your profit from self-employment. Add that to your gross income from employment, work out what tax is due, take off what you've already paid, and the balance is what you have to pay direct.

By the sound of it, you won't be paying any tax anyway through your employment, nor will you be due to pay National Insurance. So you do need to register with HMRC and start paying NI - although if you expect your total income from S/E to be less than about £5000 you can ask for a small earnings exemption.

anma2678 wrote: »

With the singing, I'm paid on the night of the gig, so do I not need to complete an invoice, just a receipt maybe ??

Definitely write a receipt, your own records need to be good. But you can take off travel expenses, possibly some subsistence if you travel long distances, etc etc etc.

soupdragon10

HMRC offer some half day courses on self employment including registration, employment status and allowable and non allowable expenses.
I've just been given a place on the first two courses, which might be helpful for you. The link to the relevant section of HMRC is on the Business Link website.

steve1980

The 2 forms you need....

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cwf1.pdf and http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cf10.pdf