Declaring Additional Income Help!!!

coralpm

I'm really struggling with this.

Have a full time job where I PAYE. I write articles in my spare time and have started being paid for them. My first payment was on 30.01.2015 and I'm getting regular work. We're talking about £200 per month here.

How do I go about registering for self assessment and paying tax on this? I've done some research but it's all complicated and some things have been contradictory.

How do I do it? When do I need to do a tax return? Total beginner and really floundering! Thanks in advance.

P.S - They should really teach this stuff in schools!!:rotfl:

PlutoinCapricorn

If you intend to carry on with writing and hope to make a decent income from it, then registering with HMRC as a Sole Trader is the next step.

https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader/register

Your first tax return will cover 2014/15 and can be submitted any time between April 6th 2015 and Jan 31st 2016.

[Deleted User]

Am I right in thinking that if the additional income is less that the PAYE, then one can always declare it as “Other Income” in the self-assessment form, regardless of whether it is regular or occasional? At the end of the day what the HMRC are interested in is that you pay your tax.

coralpm

See, this is where I get confused. I think registering as a Sole Trader is the advice I've read about most, but this 'other income' thing is new information to me. I also had a friend suggesting I set myself up as a limited company because it's easier to offset more expenses on tax?

Why is it not simple?!

Any other help, anyone??

I intend to write regularly and I expect to earn £3k per year in total from freelance work. My full time job pays 19k and I pay tax via PAYE.

asajj

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4896060

coralpm

Thank you - I didn't realise there was a better board for this!

asajj

No problem, and good luck :P

[Deleted User]

coralpm wrote: »

See, this is where I get confused. I think registering as a Sole Trader is the advice I've read about most, but this 'other income' thing is new information to me.

The practicality of declaring it as other income and stay on PAYE vs going self employed depends on many factors, such as see below:

coralpm wrote: »

I also had a friend suggesting I set myself up as a limited company because it's easier to offset more expenses on tax?

Then you will have to weigh the pros and cons. If you're serious about this, disregard all the advice you can get from a web forum and invest your money on a good consultant that could save you valuable money in the long run,

coralpm wrote: »

Why is it not simple?!

Because it's tax, and it's meant to be confusing, obfuscated and scary and eventually scare people away from doing business.

coralpm wrote: »

I intend to write regularly and I expect to earn £3k per year in total from freelance work. My full time job pays 19k and I pay tax via PAYE.

If that was me, I'd stay on PAYE and declare it as other income, but see point above.