Thinking of working part time self employed

longwalks1

I work full time but it is only 14 days a month. I am considering working on my days off doing PAT testing (ive already researched and there is a space in the area I live, and I have 2 firends who are electriccians who said they can also put a fair bit of work my way).


What do i need to do to allow me to do this, as in setting up a small business/company? I'm doing my PAT test training and will be ordered a certified tester, but i know nothing about working for myself?

Any adivce please, will be greatly appreciated

Mistral001

There is nothing special you have to do. Just fill in a self assessment form for HMRC and pay the income tax due and national insurance due on the profit you make from PAT testing.

It might be advisable to take out insurance such as professional indemnity insurance or public liability insurance, but there is no law that says that you have to.

longwalks1

Mistral001 wrote: »

There is nothing special you have to do. Just fill in a self assessment form for HMRC and pay the income tax due and national insurance due on the profit you make from PAT testing.

It might be advisable to take out insurance such as professional indemnity insurance or public liability insurance, but there is no law that says that you have to.

Thank you Mistral, is the self assessment form filled out at end of tax year? And I'm assuming I can offset cost of training, equipment and labels on it (thats all my costs will be, other than business cards and a printed jumper and safety boots)


Any recommendations for good companies/websites for insurance?

Mistral001

HMRC like you to tell them within a few months of you starting trading that you are trading, but if you start after 5th April in the year you will not have to pay income tax until the January after the end of the financial year which in your case means if you start tomorrow (6th April) you will not have to pay tax until January 2021.

You only pay tax on profit i.e. income less allowable expenses, which as you say are items which you use for your business. It is important to keep records of business expenses such as receipts and number of miles travelled in you car if you need to travel in connection with the business. Record keeping might be just a shoebox where you throw the receipts you get and a notebook where you record miles travelled on a certain day to certain destination so that you have everything at hand when you want to work out your expenses at the end of the financial year.

Slinky

With something where lives could be at risk if you muck up, liability insurance would be at the top of my list.

00ec25

britishboy wrote: »

And I'm assuming I can offset cost of training,

no you cannot offset the costs of training to be something you are not already qualified as .

training costs for acquiring a new skill/qualification are expressly disallowed when working out how much profit you need to pay tax on

you have to foot the bill to train yourself