Student Self Assessment Confusion

00ec25

ssan22 wrote: »

this was a temporary job for a gallery as an invigilator. ... we had a manager looking over us on site but that was it, we didn't really have contact with the people higher up.
so the question becomes as a temp were you in fact:
- working for the gallery?
- an intermediary employment agency who had their own contract with the gallery to provide staff to it? or,
- as appears to be the case in physical terms, you were "self employed" and sold your own services directly to the gallery as a contractor
we were paid every two weeks and we had to submit invoices with our hours on it and information like bank details, address etc. to an email that our manager was looking after. she would then send it off to the gallery for us to get paid. my payments fluctuated depending on how busy i was equally possible that that sounds awfully like the "manager" was in fact their own agency and billed the gallery as the customer of the agency.

first payment was on 2/11 for week 1 (£200), week 2 (£195) & week 3 (£110)
2nd payment 16/11 - week 4 (£80) & 5 (£155)
3rd payment 30/11 - week 6 (£190) & 7 (£105)
4th payment 14/12- week 8 (£260) & 9 (£290)
5th payment 21/12 - week 10 (£215)

we would send off our invoices, get paid and that was it. they didnt send anything back to us or anything. at the bottom of the invoice there was a box that stated "I am aware I am liable for my own Tax and National Insurance deductions.

so "they" (the gallery? the manager?) gave you a pre printed document which you completed as a combined timesheet / "invoice". I wonder if the gallery name was on it as you would expect if it genuinely were a timesheet for temp employees, not self employed contractors sending in their own invoices ....

what we are saying is it sounds very far from certain that you were self employed....

however, you have made your bed and must now lie in it

Electronic Signature OR print name:" so we had to write our name on there and thats why i called hmrc and signed up via the phone for "self assessment". i think they did this so they would have less responsibility they may think that but HMRC may well disagree -

lets ignore the self employed question as the risk of it being challenged lies mainly with "them" not with you. So to focus on what you need to know right now...

ssan22 wrote: »

with the dates that you said, is it safe for me to assume that my "registration" letter from hmrc with my tax code on it will be posted to me after the end of the tax year aka 5 april 2018? or should i chase it up for them to send me one now? i think i read online that it should've taken them 2 weeks after registration

you will get a letter within 10 working days (obviously with Christmas that does not mean 10 calendar days) which will give you the code to activate your online account.

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return/register-if-youre-self-employed

Forget about a deadline in April 2018. That is not the deadline you need to meet, as a "self employed" person who did work between 6 April 2017 and 5 April 2018 (ie. the 17/18 tax year) you are required to submit your tax return after that year ends, so you can submit 17/18's tax return between 6 April 2018 and before midnight on 31 Jan 2019. You can submit it anytime you want between those dates, though often best not to do it in April 18 as HMRC systems are stretched dealing with the overrun from the previous year. For the same reason best not to leave it until 31 Jan 19 either.

ssan22 wrote: »

also just for reassurance - for registration, you have to register every year right? when i registered at the end of october 2017, i told the guy that i will be only working from oct2017-dec2017 therefore he musti've only registered me for the tax year 2017-2018 right? or for 2016-2017 as well? it was after 5th october (deadline for 2016-2017) so i assume he only registered me for 2017-2018 so i dont have to worry about 2016-2017 (i didnt have a job between that period anyway) and the deadline thats in jan2018 because it doesnt apply to me, correct? or unless i'm now "registered/he registered me for 2016-2017 do i need to tell them i earned £0 between 6 april 2016 and 5 april 2017?

NO You were registered from the date you told them you wished to register as self employed. You remain registered as self employed until you actually tell them you no longer want to be. It is important you understand that because as from right now HMRC believes that you are continuously self employed and they therefore will expect to see you declare income every year until you tell them you have stopped. Why that is crucial is it means HMRC will now require you to submit a tax return every year until they tell you not to. Yes you will receive a reminder around May each year telling you that you need to submit the return for the year ended the previous month (ie 6th April) but if you fail to submit a tax return each year you will be heavily fined each year.

The simple solution is to tell them you are no longer self employed at the same time as you send them the tax return covering the 17/18 tax year where you have these invigilator "earnings". This explains how to do it:

https://www.gov.uk/stop-being-self-employed