Where do I start?!

willis

Hi,
I have recently become self employed. I will earn under the tax threshold, so won't pay tax, but I am making voluntary National Insurance contributions.
I don't have a clue about what I am entitled to (if anything) and what I can claim expenses for.
For example, should I get free prescriptions? and if so, how do I go about this?
I have had to buy a few things for my work, can I claim these as expenses? And how do expenses work? Do I get the money back? or just the VAT? or am I totally wrong??!!

Is there a telephone number I can call for help?

Please help!
Thanks

bestpud

Do you have a partner, or children, or both, as that will make a difference to the help you can get.

You get less help if self-employed anyway, I do know that.

I'd have thought you'd need to claim wtc to get free prescriptions and if you had a partner, their earnings would be taken into account. Plus you have to be over 25.

You can claim work expenses against the tax you would pay at the end of the year. As far as I know, if expenses are purely for work, you can offset the whole amount, but you don't actually get it back in cash, if that is what you mean? Sorry if you realise that already - I wasn't sure from reading your post.

Try ringing your local tax office as they are usually quite helpful. Otherwise, have you checked out the Inland Revenue website?

Not much help really - hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will come along soon!

Bestpud