Was i self employed ?help needed with working out tax!!!

ashleydwarner

:rotfl:Hi there,

I was wondering if any body could help me out too?

For a whole year i was working as a courier and was being paid by cheque each week.

I confirmed myself as self employed last april and as of feb this year i have started working in an office and all my tax is worked out automatically for me each month in my new occupation.

As i was being paid a cheque each week and was not paying tax last year. am i classed as self employed???

my boss said i had to work out my own tax and im not sure wether to use an accountant as i didnt have many outgoings to calculate.

If so , with not many ougoings towards work, is it worth me using an accountant?


Any help will be much appreciated.

00ec25

to whom did you "confirm yourself as self employed last April"? HMRC? the company?

did the company provide you with a vehicle/bike or did you use your own?

who paid for the fuel - you/them?

did you register with HMRC as self employed and pay class 2 national insurance contributions due from anyone who is self employed?

you will need to do a SA tax return for 10/11 - have you registered for it or has HMRC already approached you to do it. The fact you have not paid the weekly NI contributions is a problem but should not need an accountant to deal with that plus doing your retrun as your position is relatively straightforward

Chinkle

Sound like phoney self-employment to me. If you were genuinely self-employed you would be your own boss. There are fairly clear tests HMRC use to classify what is self employment and what is employment (so that people like your ex-boss) don't try to side step their duties or their tax liabilities.

Anyway, that's water under the bridge, as to ensuring you pay the correct tax/NI for that time as OOec25 said we need to know what you did at the time to establish your self employed status. If you contacted HMRC at that time they would have arranged for you to pay class II NI by direct debit and put you on the system to complete a self assessment tax return. It sounds like you didn't do this. Now you should know you can be fined for failing to declare this.

I would call the tax office explain the situation and they maybe lenient on you and want to go after your ex-company for dodging their responsibilities. Either way you will have some NI and tax to pay, so hope you have set aside something from your pay cheques to cover this.

ashleydwarner

Hi

Thanks for your advice. Sorry i wasn't clear enough in my first post.

I have confirmed myself as self employed as of april last year until now.

I have been paying NI every so often( it think it was around £30 every couple of months?)

I havent been sent a tax return letter yet, but i do intend to fill it out.

I was recieveing a cheque every week and just couldnt understand if i was self employed or not?

My main question has been answered though. It should be pretty straight forward for me to fill out my tax return as the vehicle was supplied for me and i didnt pay for diesel.

however i did occasionally buy work clothes and equipment for work use.

does anybody have any good webpages on allowances for tax ?


Thanks for your help

much apprreciated

harryhound

Most courier drivers and taxi drivers are self employed.
You might like to repost on one of their forums for trade specific advice.
Presumably you were more or less a labour only subcontractor for the courier firm, or did you provide your own vehicle etc.?
How much profit have you made after claiming some of the following.
Maps?
Uniform?
Laundry of uniform?
Parking charges? (Not fines)
Tolls?
Overnight (not lunch) expenses?
Police checks?
Sat Nav.
Mobile telephone?
Charges payable for insurance/controller/radio?

Really you should be invoicing the courier company for your percentage of the money you earned for them. (They might be able to give you a print out that was charged that you then return to them as a "self bill" Invoice)

You should be able to sort all this out on the HMRC on-line Self Assessment system.

You must explain that your self employed business has finished (you are not doing the odd double charge for Sunday jobs still?) to avoid being charged money on account for 2011/12 tax year on top of your 2010/11 liability.