Self Assessment help

ANGELFLOWER

Hi, I have been self employed for a year and thought it was about time I thought about doing my tax return. I am a Sole Trader and as such do a few things such as mystery shopping, filling in surveys, web evaluation, advertising on my car... I remember talking to the tax office when I registered as self employed and they said I should fill in a SA103 for each of my trades.

Looking at the form it asks for a business name. I am now a little confused as I don't have business names as such as I am a Sole Trader. Is my business name my name, or should I have one for each of my trades? i.e. ...Trading As....

Wondering how many SA103 forms I do need to fill in. I am not earning anyway near the £70,000, my tax affairs are simple, or should be.

Hope someone can help.

Thanks in advance.

ceeforcat

My suggestion:

Trade name: Your own name (unless you want to make one up!)

Fill in one form - nature of trade - marketing income or suchlike.

antrobus

ANGELFLOWER wrote: »

Hi, I have been self employed for a year and thought it was about time I thought about doing my tax return.

A very good idea. Too many people leave it until the last minute and then panic.

ANGELFLOWER wrote: »

I am a Sole Trader and as such do a few things such as mystery shopping, filling in surveys, web evaluation, advertising on my car... I remember talking to the tax office when I registered as self employed and they said I should fill in a SA103 for each of my trades.

Well yes the official instructions are that "You must complete a set of Self-employment (full) pages for each business you are involved in". But that's not particularly helpful to be honest, as it's perfectly possible to have one business with multiple sources of income, and whether or not each different source of income constitutes a business in its own right is really nothing more than a matter of opinion

My opinion (for what it's worth) is that if you are simply 'doing a few things' as in "mystery shopping, filling in surveys, web evaluation, advertising on my car" and aren't exactly at risk of getting in the Sunday Times Rich List real soon, then simply treating it all as one business and completing one SA103 should be fine.

ANGELFLOWER wrote: »

Looking at the form it asks for a business name. I am now a little confused as I don't have business names as such as I am a Sole Trader. Is my business name my name, or should I have one for each of my trades? i.e. ...Trading As....

SA103 asks for the Business Name - unless it is in your own name - so you can ignore that question and leave it blank

ANGELFLOWER

Thank you for your replies.