No Self-employed earnings this year, declare or not...

yodel21

Hi folks,
I earned nothing self-employed in 2014-2015 but had self-employment in 2013-2014 and will have in 2015-2016.
Do I fill my Self-Assessment purely as a PAYE earner or do I put my self-employed income as £0.00 and claim phone and some bills.

Any thoughts would be welcome.....

TheCyclingProgrammer

Firstly, I assume you've received a notice to file a return for 2014-15? If you were registered self employed in 13/14 and didn't tell HMRC you've stopped trading then I'm going to assume you have.

In which case, you have to submit something. You should fill out an employment sheet for each job you've had using the details from your P45/P60 and P11D if you have one. If you're still registered as self employed then you should also fill put a self employment sheet and out your turnover as nil.

I think you can still put down any expenses which would result in a trading loss although I'm afraid I don't know if these can be used to offset your overall tax liability. I'm sure somebody else can chip in in that one.

I must say, you're leaving this all quite late! If in doubt, try and submit something to avoid the penalty, you can always submit a change later.

[Deleted User]

The loss can be set against the PAYE income - fairly simple process. Number one priority - get the return in!

yodel21

Late indeed! My return was done by accountants the last five years but I now earn mainly PAYE.
Finally got through to Tax folk online and yes you're both right. I need to include a £0.00 earnings for self-employed and can offset previous things I claimed for when I had self-employed earnings such as mobile phone, home phone, travel etc...
I will have some earnings for 2015_2016 but mainly PAYE so same again next year! Hey ho.

Cook_County

Were you in business in 2014-15 on a commercial basis with a view to a profit?

Pennywise

yodel21 wrote: »

and can offset previous things I claimed for when I had self-employed earnings such as mobile phone, home phone, travel etc...

Just remember it's only business use proportions, so you may have to reconsider what proportions of mobile and home phone costs you're claiming for, as presumably, with no income, you'll have done less phoning. Same with use of home, as presumably, you're working at home less on your business with no income. Travelling is for business purposes allowable but again, revisit your business mileage as if you've used proportions in the past, they may need revisiting. HMRC will expect to see far lower costs claimed for a business with no income, so may be a good idea to put an explanation into the "additional information" box to explain why no income and what business activities have been done to justify the expenses claim.