Self Assessment help please

KathF

I am about to register as self employed , all my earnings will be via paypal but in USD, i will then be converting to GBP before withdrawing to a bank account set up for business, ive been told i just need to count the GBP totals

Now when it comes to the tax return. what do i fill in, ive tried looking on net but get confused with what forms as theres so many and i dont know if its just the SA100 or another one on top?
But can i simply put in my total turnover some where and then expenses? then whats left?

as i work from home if my total bills for rent, phone, net , heating, light etc ate 909.50 a month what % do i put on form, and where? do i submit these individually or total? is there a max limit to expenses claimed if you do cash basis or short form?

i dont have any other things to submit no other income, no other expenses etc so would it be simple to fill in?

on 1500 a month takings whats the max expenses i can claim without triggering them to look . im stressing over simply filling the SA in i really dont want to chance them investigating for doing something wrong

i will be doing it all online but just want to make sure i know what im doing before getting to that point

thanks in advance for any help and advice

Savvy_Sue

I can't help much on the UK issues, but are the USD arriving in your paypal account from companies, or individuals?

If it's companies, there's a US tax thing you may need to do to avoid paying tax in the US.

KathF

hi thanks for the reply
there are two sites that pay me monthly all the earnings made from clients but i filled in the tax forms for those companies
and then the third have the clients pay via the site to me using the APi system( paypal) so the funds actually come direct to my paypal from the clients
so both company and individuals really, thanks

Savvy_Sue

This thread seems to be a similar situation, so the links should help. And what I first said may not be relevant to you.

However, read this:

If you are a company in the UK getting paid by a company in the US, you need to fill in [Form W-8BEN-E for UK limited companies] to avoid the US government withholding 30% of your income.

If you are an individual in the UK getting paid by a company in the US, you need to fill in the simpler W-8BEN form, which is a lot less scary. You still need to get an EIN, as described in the next section. That EIN is your answer to section 5 of the W-8BEN (U.S. taxpayer identification number), and you can leave blank sections 6 (foreign tax identifying number), 7 (reference number) and 10 (special rates and considerations). The rest of it should be self-explanatory.

If any of the above applies to you, there is information about what to do here. Disclaimer: that's a link from DS1, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but I can state categorically that neither he nor I benefit from me linking to it.

KathF

yes thats the form the w-8 one i filled in , ill take a look at the othe rthread thankyou