Exemption from previous years NI contributions?

PrincessLou

I registered in September 2012 as self employed, however i had been self employed since April 2009. I didn't earn enough to pay tax, i was just very disorganised getting myself registered etc.

Anyway, everything is completely sorted now apart from my national insurance contributions. I phoned and requested that a bill be sent to me as i hadn't heard anything from HMRC and wanted to get it paid off and up to date as i want to claim maternity allowance later in the year.

I have been sent a bill for 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12. My question is - can i claim exmption for these years seen as i didn't earn enough to pay tax or NI? or if i claim exemption will it affect my eligibility for maternity allowance this year (even though i am now paying NI contributions for the 2012-13 year)?

Any help would be much appreciated.

PrincessLou

00ec25 wrote: »

see here and use the eligibility rules and calculator to work it out for yourself

https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

That doesn't answer my question at all....

notanewuser

PrincessLou wrote: »

I registered in September 2012 as self employed, however i had been self employed since April 2009. I didn't earn enough to pay tax, i was just very disorganised getting myself registered etc.

Anyway, everything is completely sorted now apart from my national insurance contributions. I phoned and requested that a bill be sent to me as i hadn't heard anything from HMRC and wanted to get it paid off and up to date as i want to claim maternity allowance later in the year.

I have been sent a bill for 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12. My question is - can i claim exmption for these years seen as i didn't earn enough to pay tax or NI? or if i claim exemption will it affect my eligibility for maternity allowance this year (even though i am now paying NI contributions for the 2012-13 year)?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Self employed NI isn't based on income.

PrincessLou

notanewuser wrote: »

Self employed NI isn't based on income.

I know, but if you earn under a certain amount you can claim exemption from paying NI contributions.

anmarj

if you have a small earnings exemption then they only treat you as having paid £30 per week contrbution and your maternity allowance would be £27 per week (had a look at it for myself)

looking at their web site you can only backdate 13 weeks, they may be able to extend it but if you want to be eligable for the full amount of MA then you may not want to apply for it to be backdated.