Complicated - sole trader & employee ?

Austinhead

My OH is working and employed so he couldnt get involved. He did used to be a company director so we've gone through the dividends thing before so I kind of know how that works.

I'm not earning lots of money here, certainly not £300 a day contractor rates. My jobs pay between £10 and £20 an hour.

One of my biggest concerns also is tax credits. At the moment we get quite a lot of help as my partner earns crap wages, and i was only earning a small amount plus we have childcare costs. Financially we have really been struggling and i'm eager to improve that as best I can. What I can't afford to happen is to up my gross income by, say, £10k a year, only for the tax and NI to take £3k and the tax credits to go down by another £4k or £5k because i'll not be that much better off. Yes, I agree, i WILL be better not, but not by much per month.

As far as buying the ltd company, I have had some figures through, and I don't think it's going to be possible. The company doesn't really bring enough in to justify the initial expense.

I'll phone around next week and see if I can find a local accountant who can offer some initial free/cheap advise.

Thanks guys.