Help Self-Declaring some side earnings

Stockwell

Hi,

I'd like to know about self-declaring an income in the 2011-12 year, and what I need to pay.

I am employed full-time and pay usual tax and NI contributions through this (the company deal with all this so I never have to fill anything in). I pay at the higher tax bracket.

I began doing some work for a friend writing website content for his company, for which I was paid £5700 in the tax year. I need to pay tax on this, but have a few questions.

1) Do I just fill out online forms with the HMRC? Is this easy, or a real mine-field?
2) How do I go about paying National Insurance on this (do I have to if I already pay NI on my full time job)
3) Will my employer know about the work I've done separately once I declare this?
4) Is it worth getting an accountant to help me, or should this be relatively straight-forward?
5) Can I charge the cost of a new laptop against my earnings for this which I have purchased, or should it be a proportion of the purchase price?

Thanks in advance

CKhalvashi

Stockwell wrote: »

Hi,

I'd like to know about self-declaring an income in the 2011-12 year, and what I need to pay.

I am employed full-time and pay usual tax and NI contributions through this (the company deal with all this so I never have to fill anything in). I pay at the higher tax bracket.

I began doing some work for a friend writing website content for his company, for which I was paid £5700 in the tax year. I need to pay tax on this, but have a few questions.

1) Do I just fill out online forms with the HMRC? Is this easy, or a real mine-field?
2) How do I go about paying National Insurance on this (do I have to if I already pay NI on my full time job)
3) Will my employer know about the work I've done separately once I declare this?
4) Is it worth getting an accountant to help me, or should this be relatively straight-forward?
5) Can I charge the cost of a new laptop against my earnings for this which I have purchased, or should it be a proportion of the purchase price?

Thanks in advance

The tax return is quite easy, although you'll need records.

Were you working from home? If so, take 20% of your electricity, internet and possibly mobile phone costs.

Were you working on site? You can claim 45p/mile, or 25p/mile if you've totalled over 10,000 miles for work.

NI has to be paid, however it's not an 'expense', as it's taken off afterwards, and no, your employer won't find out.

If you've bought the laptop for this purpose, but are getting personal use from it, I've put 50% through for several occasions over the last few years and HMRC have never mentioned it (I've been audited twice).

CK