The £1000 trading allowance

Midas

I have a question regarding the £1000 trading allowance introduced by George Osborne from 2017/18 onwards.

I work full-time and pay tax via PAYE. If I were to earn some additional income (less than £1000) from publishing (e.g. the occasional article) would this be exempt from tax thanks to this 'trading allowance'? I understand that the trading allowance can be used against 'miscellaneous' income but I am struggling to find a clear definition of what this does or does not include.

Second question: if such income from publishing is indeed exempt, if I was to earn over £1k from this activity would it ALL become taxable, or just the element over £1k?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

In the example given on the HMRC manual here https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim86072 , they cite the example of a PAYE employee who provides dog walking services during weekends and earns a few hundred quid a year, this qualifies for the allowance.

That being the case, casual income from publishing, your blog, etc *should* count as misc income I guess, but I might be wrong!

Is the publishing/ocassional article that you do in any way related to your work?

Midas

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

In the example given on the HMRC manual here https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim86072 , they cite the example of a PAYE employee who provides dog walking services during weekends and earns a few hundred quid a year, this qualifies for the allowance.

That being the case, casual income from publishing, your blog, etc *should* count as misc income I guess, but I might be wrong!

Is the publishing/occasional article that you do in any way related to your work?

Yes, the publishing/occasional article I could potentially write in return for a fee would relate to my work in that it would be on a subject I deal with in my full-time job. I would though write it in my spare time. I suppose my question is driven by a calculation about whether it is worth investing my time to do this extra work (if I can earn the extra tax free it probably is, but if I must pay 40% of the fee in tax it probably isn't).

Pennywise

Midas wrote: »

Yes, the publishing/occasional article I could potentially write in return for a fee would relate to my work in that it would be on a subject I deal with in my full-time job.

It's more whether it's related to your employer that matters, i.e. whether you are paid by your employer or an associate of theirs for the publishing work.

Midas

Pennywise wrote: »

It's more whether it's related to your employer that matters, i.e. whether you are paid by your employer or an associate of theirs for the publishing work.

Ah, I see. No I would not be being paid by my employer or an associate of theirs.