registering 2nd income from a small online business whilst working full time.

southwest6

Hi there wonderful internet forum people,

I work full time working earning a salary of £32400 helping homeless and unemployed benefit claimants. I have started a small internet business with my partner (who owns half the biz) that has commenced trading. Our total billings £250 and weve being going for 5 weeks.

I would be most grateful if you could advise me on the best way to handle HM Revenue and Customs, and what we should go for with them so that we dont stitch ourselves up with more tax than we could be paying.
We're hoping with our hard work this venture will eventually be financially viable for us to direct our business on a full time basis.

Help would be much appreciated and if you around South London I'll buy you a pint :-)

Horace

You cannot avoid dealing with the HMRC because that would be fraud. You need to register your self employment with them (you can be employed and self employed at the same time). You will need to fill in self assessments that the HMRC will send you annually. You will be taxed on your profits. Remember too that you need to pay Class 2 NI on top and approximately one third of your takings will need to set aside for tax.

Savvy_Sue

Welcome to the boards.

If you are a partnership, I hope you have a legal and watertight partnership agreement, so that it is clear who is entitled to what in terms of income etc. I am not sure how being self-employed in a partnershp works, but you will be glad of the agreement if anything goes wrong: one of you wants out, one of you thinks they're doing more of the work and getting less benefit than the other etc. If you don't have one and anything goes wrong, it'll be too late.

Just to add to what Horace said, if you expect your earnings from self employment to be less than c. £5000 in any tax year you can ask for an Exemption Certificate. Do phone HMRC because they are usually very helpful.