Becoming a private tutor- all questions here

bubbleoflife_2

therivierakid wrote: »

Just to add to vallo's warning, I would also keep detailed records of your tutoring. As a bare minimum, names and contacts details of your tutees and their parents; what you charged on which days and how much commission you paid. You could do it on a spreadsheet but I have an Access database that I use.

Thank you for that
Does it mean that tax office is after anyone declaring income as private tutor?
I've been registerd as self-employed for past 7+ years (National Contributions are up to date!) and keep a lined paper (ledger style) book for each source of income. The tutoring side has pupil's name, hourly rate, total number of hours taught and total amount being paid.
Is that enough?

cheekychipmunk

bubbleoflife wrote: »

Thank you for that
Does it mean that tax office is after anyone declaring income as private tutor?
I've been registerd as self-employed for past 7+ years (National Contributions are up to date!) and keep a lined paper (ledger style) book for each source of income. The tutoring side has pupil's name, hourly rate, total number of hours taught and total amount being paid.
Is that enough?

I have an excel file I created for this. I include the date, name of pupil, distance travelled by me (if applicable), number of pages I print out and the amount received from student. Then calculate the profit by removing the printing (6p a sheet) and travelling (45p per mile) expenses. I also generate a receipt for the student at the end of each term, detailing all money paid to me. I obviously keep hard copies of these.

Also, make sure you keep a record of the addresses/contact details for all students. Otherwise, I think that's it!

bubbleoflife_2

cheekychipmunk wrote: »

I have an excel file I created for this. I include the date, name of pupil, distance travelled by me (if applicable), number of pages I print out and the amount received from student. Then calculate the profit by removing the printing (6p a sheet) and travelling (45p per mile) expenses. I also generate a receipt for the student at the end of each term, detailing all money paid to me. I obviously keep hard copies of these.

Also, make sure you keep a record of the addresses/contact details for all students. Otherwise, I think that's it!

Good idea, a detailed spreadsheet that includes printing and travelling.
At the moment, I keep a diary dedicated just for the milage.
One thing, though, I always offer a receipt but majority of my pupils don't want it so I just keep a book with date, amount per hour, number of hours and total amount.

montrano

Ive thought about this for a long time, but I think once the new school year starts, I might give it a go.
I was thinking about advertising in a couple of local newsagents, probably £5-6 per hour as I have no formal experience.
I have qualifications in electronics engineering and A level maths, as well as part of the financial advise certificate as well as a certificate in science and currently working on a life sciences degree.
I have taught a few friends maths and got their grades up with just a few sessions.
Its not likely to get me off jobseekers in the short term, but I do genuinely enjoy maths and science.

geek84

Good Morning Folks

I too would like to teach science - but only physics. Would that be possible? In my time, the sciences ware split into 3 - Physics. Biology, Chemistry, but they are now known as somehing else. Is that right?

I suppose the content of physics is still the same?

Please advice.

twinklie

If you work as a full time teacher and are tutoring on the side. If you earn less than say £5'000 through tutoring can I just confirm that you are exempt from extra NI class 2 contributions?

Mrs_Money

twinklie wrote: »

If you work as a full time teacher and are tutoring on the side. If you earn less than say £5'000 through tutoring can I just confirm that you are exempt from extra NI class 2 contributions?

I've never heard of this before - where did you get that info? But anyway, my assumption has always been that if you're in full time work you are most definitely paying your NI contributions in full. Up until May I had a second job (also PAYE) - and only paid NI on the main job (but that could well have been because it was under the £5000 threshold). A friend is also employed in 2 jobs and pays no NI on the second, but I've never been able to find any info on the rules!

twinklie

I'll get back to you about the above in a few minutes.
A few additional questions to keep you busy in the meantime:
1. Do you need a separate bank account for tutoring or can it go through your current account?
2. How much do you claim for use of home office if you don't actually tutor in your own home? I have put printing down at 6p per sheet and travel at 40p per mile....but was wondering about the cost of electricity, internet, home phone etc in terms of prep work for tutoring.

Thanks in advance.

twinklie

Some of the figures may be slightly out because I've copy and pasted this from elsewhere. You may also be required to pay class 2 National Insurance at the rate of £2.50 a week, but only if you earn more than £5,315 (between 06/04/11 and 05/04/12) after expenses in any one year through Self Employment.

If you think you will earn less than £5,315 in the financial year, then you can apply for a “Certificate of Small Earnings Exception” which means you will not have to pay NI (National Insurance) Contributions. The Exception application can be found at the end of this document CF10 - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cf10.pdf

IMPORTANT National Insurance point: (thanks to Becles for this!)
If you earn less than £5,315 , you don't have to apply for the Small Earnings Certificate and you can pay the £2.50 a week contributions.

If you are not paying NI in any other jobs, it can be worthwhile to pay these NI contributions. It will count towards any benefits you may need in the future and contributes to your state pension record.

Bear in mind that HMRC generally seem to have very long delays on processing these forms so don’t worry too much if it’s a few weeks before you hear anything. It's usually better to just call them!

Information on Self Assessment - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/selfemp.htm

sr1298

Hi all, I came across a new website that is offering private tuition for tutors in a wide range of subjects. It looks really interesting so you should check it out!
It's called turtle tutors