Part Time Self Employment

Kellyanne1703

I work full time ( being made redundant in November 2017 ) I have always done photography as a hobby, now I believe would be the ideal time to make it earn.


How do I go about setting up a part time business?


Some questions I have:
1) Do I have to pay NI & Tax if I don't earn anything? I might have one job a month until I get bookings
2) Is there any links on how to work out what I would have to pay in Tax & NI with me already working FT?
3) How do I register with HMRC?
4) What records would I need to keep?
5) I am in the process of purchasing a new computer, can I claim anything back on this?


Sorry for all the questions.

phill99

Call HMRC. I'm self employed and always find them helpful.


1) If you don't earn anything, you can't pay tax and NI.
2). Any tax paid depends on profits, not earnings. Your earnings are your gross income. (eg £5000 for some portraits) minus business expenses (insurances, photographic equipment purchases, fuel, accountancy fees etc). This may end up at £3000 so you will only pay tax / NI on the £3k.
3) Just ring HMRC and they will register you.
4) Keep all records of expenditure that is or you may think may be relevant to your business eg fuel and car running costs, mobile
phone, advertising, stamps, stationary, filing cabinets, shelving, SD Cards, printers, printer ink, cameras, Laptop etc etc.
5) Yes


My best advice would be see an accountant. they wont charge anything for an initial consultation and their fees will only be a couple of hundred pounds a year and it will be money well invested.

trailingspouse

Well done for thinking ahead.

Yes, go and speak to an accountant. In fact, go and speak to 2 or 3. Most will give you 1/2 an hour of their time for free - so decide what you want to ask them, and go for it. Once you've spoken to the first one, more questions will come to mind based on what they've said - so you go to the 2nd one, and get another 30 minutes of expert advice. And so on. And while you're at it you'll decide which one is the one for you.

And don't be afraid to ask how much they will charge you. When we first started, our accountant quoted a fixed fee for the first year, regardless of how many times I rang them with stupid questions - I found this to be an absolute godsend.

jobbingmusician

Quite a lot of the questions you ask are answered in the mystery shopping thread, which is a sticky (I think!) in the 'up your income' section of this forum.

ACG

An accoutant will be a great help initially.

Put 20% of anything you earn into a savings account. It will pay your tax bill at the end the year.