Advice needed on proof of earnings for Self Employed for Tax Return

ravenmoon36

zygurat789 wrote: »

Of course you are but HMRC do not have to advise you of any other method of doing this, they just answered your question and they make collect a bit of tax. I take it you have nothing in writing and so cannot prove that you were given this advice should there be any problems further down the road.You could also look after your grandchildren for free for pleasure as we do.
If my daughter felt the need to support her aged parents and gave us some money every now and then I would not considered it to be taxable.
The only reason why you would would want to do what you are doing is to pay NI to preserve benefits. Is this the reason?
You dio not claim to be self employed, instead you have self employed income. Whether your income is from self employment or employment is determined as a result of a number of tests, as John says. If your mother turns uop at your house and looks after the children there and then goes home I would have thought that she was employed rather than self employed.

She looks after my daughter because it seemed absurd that I pay a nursery more than what she would be currently earning when they cut her pay at her previous job. She pays NI as she thought that is what you are supposed to do. I pick her up and drop her off at my mums house and she has her every week day 8-4. She is 55 and will probably never be able to afford to retire!

zygurat789

ravenmoon36 wrote: »

She looks after my daughter because it seemed absurd that I pay a nursery more than what she would be currently earning when they cut her pay at her previous job. She pays NI as she thought that is what you are supposed to do. I pick her up and drop her off at my mums house and she has her every week day 8-4. She is 55 and will probably never be able to afford to retire!

First of all you , and your mum, should start finding out the right things to do instead of seeming, thinking and probably things.
Get her a pension quote and find out if she has the required number of stamps for a full pension. If she worked at a school is there an occupational pension? Don't frget things like pension credits.
The point John & I were making was ae tio whether your mum was self employed or employed. This is not something you can claim or elect it is a matter of fact based on how your mother operates. It now looks like she may be self employed which is better.

John_Pierpoint

Believe it or not, I support people working the system, if the system is wrong let us have a debate and formally change it; rather than than have HMRC mission creep.

As it says in the bible: "The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath".

Presumably you and mum have different surnames;)

I think I would be happier if mum had another string to her bow or at least be shared by at least two clients at random..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63975074#Comment_63975074

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/self-employed-income.htm

ravenmoon36

Thank you both for your replies. I will investigate the pension issue, she worked her last job for 5 years and did pay into a pension with the school, but it only amounts to about 3 thousand I think as she wasn't there for long, we did enquire into it when she left. Before that her employment has been patchy as she was a stay at home mum (she had me and my youngest sister 10 years apart), but you are right that it is good to know the actual details and amounts.

I have looked at the links provided and it seems the only issue tax credits might have is the fact that what she earns is quite low for the hours she works, but I am aware of the changes that are coming with Universal Credits and by then I will be able to pay her more (as my own wage isoing up next year) to keep it in line with minimum wage. Although what I do pay her is in line with what the average childminder in our area charges, but obviously a childminder usually has multiple children they are paid to look after.

In terms of proving her income we will continue to keep a record of the invoices me when I pay her at the end of every month. She did hope to try to do some other things to earn money, such as start back up her eBay shop, but hasn't had the opportunity yet. I'm not sire what other records we could keep.

Again, thank you for your input, it is great to get advice as I found citizens advice to not be very helpful. I am concerned, as the last thing I want is my mum to have to pay any benefits back, as she barely makes ends meet as she is, but as I said, when she started we did explain the context of the situation to someone from tax credits and she did the change of circumstance bit over the phone.