Help with Employed AND self employed

jeid2018

Hope someone can help with my query......

Long story short, I used to earn a salary which meant I wasn't in receipt of tax credits, family circumstances dictated I had to change my job and now I am in receipt of both Working and Child tax credits.

I have recently seen an opportunity to buy and sell goods through online channels, mainly collectables purchased second hand and resold.

I am assuming I will at some point have to declare myself self employed, but I will still be staying employed as well.

With it being a volatile venture, some months I may make a tenner, other months I could make hundreds (or more hopefully!) how do I declare this at first to ensure I don't end up claiming too much tax credit and have to pay it all back?

Any help would be much appreciated, I have no experience of self employment at all.

Darksparkle

You'll need to provide an estimate of your expected income for the tax year. You can change it as any time if you think the estimate is too high/low.

jeid2018

Thank you, does that mean the monthly payments would fluctuate if I updated them.

For example, could I let them know on a monthly basis if I had a spike in income, and would it then change my benefit payment for the following month?

Also is there a penalty or anything like that if my estimation is quite far out come the end of the year?

Darksparkle

They work on your yearly income not monthly so you would be best to factor in fluctuations when giving your estimate. I always suggest you over estimate. You could update the yearly estimate monthly but I'd advice against it as making multiple frequent changes can affect your payment schedule.

There wouldn't be any penalty, just potentially an overpayment.