Class 2 NI contributions

Madeinireland101

Thanks Prodave. I think that explains the £1000 very well. With regard to whether a profit of 0 would qualify you to pay voluntary class 2 contributions or not for the year  I am not sure either but all the information I have seen suggests you would be. Hopefully someone can confirm?

Thanks...

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Madeinireland101 said:

Thanks Prodave. I think that explains the £1000 very well. With regard to whether a profit of 0 would qualify you to pay voluntary class 2 contributions or not for the year  I am not sure either but all the information I have seen suggests you would be. Hopefully someone can confirm?

Thanks...

Providing you have completed the Self Assessment return correctly then having nil profit wouldn't prevent you from paying voluntary Class 2 NI.

t0rt0ise

Madeinireland101 said:

ProDave said:

I will look at this from the opposite angle

I am self employed and have been for 20 years.  I am trying to retire.  Last year my SE profit was low, and this current tax year it is even lower, as I have been winding down the business and taking on less and less work.

In theory next year I will have finished.  BUT I will not be de registering as self employed, because I know what will happen, there will be some friends / old customers that I will still do occasional jobs for.  So if I have ANY self employed income, no matter how small, it needs declaring so I will remain "self employed"

I absolutely understand that and as a result if you were short any state pension qualifying years you would have a low cost route to getting them. The whole point of my thread is that anyone could do this as self employed covers a wide range of work and whether you intended to work or not is pretty hard to challenge and prove you didn’t intend to work. Even if you didn’t intend to work and this was challenged you could easily pick up some low scale work which would quickly dispatch that challenge. I’m just really trying to understand why more people don’t do this (maybe they do?) as it seems relatively easy to do whether you intended to work or not.

Maybe because most people are honest!

Silvertabby

I needed 4 years of (post 2016) NI contributions to take me up to the full nSP.

I knew that, in theory, I could perhaps pay Class 2 rates by selling a few bits of tat on e-bay and registering as self-employed.  But I didn't because I just didn't need the faff.  And it seemed morally wrong.

So I paid 4 years of Class 3s, which are still unbelievably good value.  

[Deleted User]

Agree with @Silvertabby just pay the Class 3 contribution and be done with it! 

VXman

I do a couple of weeks of exam marking each year (exam invigilating qualifies too) and this allows me to buy voluntary class 2 contributions. I'm an retired teacher and 4 years short of a full state pension.

There is no minimum requirement for the amount of work you must do as long as I'm employed by a school as an invigilator or by an exam board. 

It's an odd anomaly. No idea why it exists but happy to take advantage.

Mind you, getting the HMRC to understand, allow me to pay, and credit my record is quite a job!