multiple self-employment assessment

earlyworm

Hi! I'm currently working as self-employed with an online service (think blog writing) which is going really well. I'm also an artist and I'd like to start charging for art commissions, but I'm not sure how I'd report this to HMRC and if there's anything else I need to consider? My self-employed work is under a pseudonym (think E Worm instead of Early Worm) while as an artist I use an entirely different pseudonym (think Crow - completely detached and very private).

If I did this, would I be able to use the same business account for my art commissions to be paid into, or would I do a personal account?

I'm already signed up as self-employed so would I be able to wait until the art commissions reach £1000 to begin logging them or should I report even if I only earn that extra £100 in a year?

If I need to speak to an accountant for advice, what kind of accountant should I be looking for?

Thank you!

Marcon

earlyworm said:

Hi! I'm currently working as self-employed with an online service (think blog writing) which is going really well. I'm also an artist and I'd like to start charging for art commissions, but I'm not sure how I'd report this to HMRC and if there's anything else I need to consider? My self-employed work is under a pseudonym (think E Worm instead of Early Worm) while as an artist I use an entirely different pseudonym (think Crow - completely detached and very private).

If I did this, would I be able to use the same business account for my art commissions to be paid into, or would I do a personal account?

I'm already signed up as self-employed so would I be able to wait until the art commissions reach £1000 to begin logging them or should I report even if I only earn that extra £100 in a year?

If I need to speak to an accountant for advice, what kind of accountant should I be looking for?

Thank you!

You can be self employed in respect of various activities, and need to lump all your self-employed income together for HMRC purposes - you don't get the £1,000 allowance for each alias! There's no need to register your art commissions separately, whatever name you are trading under - but you do need to report the various names on your self-assessment form.

Lots more info at https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/self-employed

General_Grant

How are you paid?  Unless in cash, your bank account needs to be in the name that the remitter will use.  

Sandtree

Legally you are simply a sole trader, you could have one venture or a hundred you are still a single sole trader.

Doing the SA online you can either lump all the moneys in together and fill in the sole trader section once or, assuming it hasnt changed, you can fill it in multiple times if you prefer for your different activities. It makes no difference in the world to the calculations or taxes etc its just a flexibility the online form allows.

As to bank accounts, its up to you. The T&Cs of personal accounts tend to say you cannot use them for sole trader activity but as long as its your main account most dont seem to do anything about the people that do. Your business account will be in your name though it may note a trading name in case you get cheques etc payable to that. You could use this account for both your sole trader activities but may want to check that they'll allow you to add another trading name if you dont want to be giving people your own name for payments (you legally will have to give them your own name anyway though)

Thrugelmir

Best to separate your personal and business activity. Makes record keeping easier.