help- avon and a paye job.

carebear13

i need your help/advice please.
ok- so am on mat leave at the moment and have been since the start of the tax year and dont go back until january and i only get smp, so will be well under the tax threshold as i only work part time anyway.
have started avon- and am making a little bit of money, approx £50 every 3 weeks (hopefully more closer to xmas). i do my rounds on foot, so no fuel expenses. i print flyers etc- approx 60 pages of a5 every 3 weeks,and i also have to buy books,etc roughly around £15 every 3 weeks. i have had one off cost of a trolley to lug books around and dont anticipate any more one off's.
my question is- at the moment all these costs plus putting 1/3 away for tax each time is costing me quite a bit.
is there an offsetting rule against paye tax?
if there is how does it work?
how can i do it if potentially i wont be a tax payer on my paye?
i estimate my earnings from april 2012 to be under £7000 from paye job and earnings from avon as an estimate to be no more than £1100 inc a bit extra for xmas sales which is £8100.
any help gratefully received, thanks.x

Savvy_Sue

You know that you take those costs off your sales, and then you're only taxed on your profit?

carebear13

yes- i know that.my hubby does both kind of jobs too.but if i earn £50 because i have to pay for the books etc, i take that off leaving me £35, and then approx 1/3 off that, doesnt leave much.

chrisbur

carebear13 wrote: »

yes- i know that.my hubby does both kind of jobs too.but if i earn £50 because i have to pay for the books etc, i take that off leaving me £35, and then approx 1/3 off that, doesnt leave much.

Have you registered as self employed?
You will get a self assesment tax form to fill in which will cover your self employed and PAYE earnings. Tax will then be due on the total earnings less any paid through PAYE. From the figures that you give there will be no tax due.
If your employment continues after mat. leave you would proberbly be able to have any tax due on self employed earnings taken through you tax code on your PAYE earnings.

Are you paying NI for self employed or have you got a certificate of low earnings?

Savvy_Sue

chrisbur wrote: »

Have you registered as self employed?

Just a thought, carebear, but are you still on Ordinary M/L and therefore receiving Stat Mat Pay? If so, are you allowed to be self-employed? I know that apart from KIT days you can't do any paid work, or your m/l is considered to have ended, don't see how the same can apply once you're on AML (and not being paid), but ...

chrisbur wrote: »

Are you paying NI for self employed or have you got a certificate of low earnings?

If hoping to earn over £1000 from self-employment, then carebear can't have the exemption certificate, needs to pay Class 2 NI, which HMRC will expect her to do by DD once she has registered.

chrisbur

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Just a thought, carebear, but are you still on Ordinary M/L and therefore receiving Stat Mat Pay? If so, are you allowed to be self-employed? I know that apart from KIT days you can't do any paid work, or your m/l is considered to have ended, don't see how the same can apply once you're on AML (and not being paid), but ...

If hoping to earn over £1000 from self-employment, then carebear can't have the exemption certificate, needs to pay Class 2 NI, which HMRC will expect her to do by DD once she has registered.

Regarding work while getting statutory maternity pay. The restrictions are on work for an employer, you may do self employed work while getting SMP. From page 26 of A guide to maternity benefits at http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/nil-17a.pdf
"If you do any work in a self-employed capacity during your MPP then such work will not affect your SMP. "
Different rules apply if recieving maternity allowance.

The current earnings figures to qualify for exemption from class 2 NI are....
"Do I have small earnings?

You will be classed as having small earnings and may not have
to pay Class 2 NICs if your earnings, that is money left after
expenses:
• were less than £5,315 for the period from 6 April 2011 to
5 April 2012 and/or
• are expected to be less than £5,595 in the tax year period
from 6 April 2012 to 5 April 2013."

The form to apply and details are at....
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cf10.pdf

Savvy_Sue

Thanks chris, it's a while since I needed to know all that stuff, and I wasn't sure what the limits were. carebear mentioned £1000+ from Avon in first post: it's all in the detail, is that before or after deducting expenses?

carebear13

hi - thank you for your replies- i havent registered yet, do they still allow you 3 months?
yes -can be s/e for a different employer on mat leave.
think i am only going to earn £1100 or less with avon before any expenses, tbh its something that i wanted to do to have money just for me and not on the house/kids/bills etc lol.

chrisbur- i kind of knew about that option thru hubby, would it be better for me that way i.e pay less tax?
and when would they do that? would they start taking it from next april?
i appreciate all your help everyone, i know this information is vailable on hmrc, but you all give such relevant info and just get to the point of the question.

anamenottaken

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Thanks chris, it's a while since I needed to know all that stuff, and I wasn't sure what the limits were. carebear mentioned £1000+ from Avon in first post: it's all in the detail, is that before or after deducting expenses?

It has to be profit (ie after deducting costs from turnover).

carebear13

yes £1100 before deducting anything- rough est £700 after. its difficult to gauge cos depends on how many place orders. have yet to do a xmas campaign too, but i think thats a reasonable estimate.

chrisbur

carebear13 wrote: »

hi - chrisbur- i kind of knew about that option thru hubby, would it be better for me that way i.e pay less tax?
and when would they do that? would they start taking it from next april?

The amount that you would pay would be the same either way, but from memory when I did this in the past you pay later, and spread out rather than a lump sum, if it is through you tax code. Not sure when it would start as it's a few years since I was PAYE and self-employed.