First Self-Assessment is causing me a headache...

gdale

I left my job as a class teacher last July and have gone into freelance/self-employed work as a tutor. I supplement this income with supply teaching for various agencies and so my tax for 23/24 is all over the place. This is my first time filling in a self-assessment and it is very scary so could anyone help?

I have written down everything I have earned from tutoring both online and face to face, which of course I have not yet been taxed for, as well as expenses I have from setting myself up - laptop I bought, desks and chairs for the workspace that was my spare room for example. The total I have earned from that in the time up until April (minus expenses) is about £1700. £2500 if I don't discount the expenses. 

My teaching salary, which ran up until August 2023, was all paid through PAYE from the council and so I assume that is all above board and fine. 

My supply earnings, because they are through various agencies are a bit all over the place. Some weeks I got minus PAYE, which to me counts as a refund on my tax on the question - "Have you had any 2023-24 Income Tax refunded or off-set by us or JobCentre Plus?" unless I have misunderstood the question! I have had a total of £437 through minus PAYE. 

I have recorded my earnings from every agency I have worked for on the HMRC website on my tax return and also my earnings from tutoring. 

Can someone answer the question - does my minus PAYE count as a tax refund in the above question and how do I go about asking HMRC to claim the tax that I owe (I believe it is about £1000) through my wage slips and not ask for it in one lump sum as this would just make it so much easier for me!

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

gdale said:

I left my job as a class teacher last July and have gone into freelance/self-employed work as a tutor. I supplement this income with supply teaching for various agencies and so my tax for 23/24 is all over the place. This is my first time filling in a self-assessment and it is very scary so could anyone help?

I have written down everything I have earned from tutoring both online and face to face, which of course I have not yet been taxed for, as well as expenses I have from setting myself up - laptop I bought, desks and chairs for the workspace that was my spare room for example. The total I have earned from that in the time up until April (minus expenses) is about £1700. £2500 if I don't discount the expenses. 

My teaching salary, which ran up until August 2023, was all paid through PAYE from the council and so I assume that is all above board and fine. 

My supply earnings, because they are through various agencies are a bit all over the place. Some weeks I got minus PAYE, which to me counts as a refund on my tax on the question - "Have you had any 2023-24 Income Tax refunded or off-set by us or JobCentre Plus?" unless I have misunderstood the question! I have had a total of £437 through minus PAYE. 

I have recorded my earnings from every agency I have worked for on the HMRC website on my tax return and also my earnings from tutoring. 

Can someone answer the question - does my minus PAYE count as a tax refund in the above question and how do I go about asking HMRC to claim the tax that I owe (I believe it is about £1000) through my wage slips and not ask for it in one lump sum as this would just make it so much easier for me!

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

Firstly why would you want to claim actual expenses of £800 instead of the Trading Allowance 🤔

You appear to have completely ignored the highlighted in the paragraph below.

My supply earnings, because they are through various agencies are a bit all over the place. Some weeks I got minus PAYE, which to me counts as a refund on my tax on the question - "Have you had any 2023-24 Income Tax refunded or off-set by us or JobCentre Plus?" unless I have misunderstood the question! I have had a total of £437 through minus PAYE. 

Did you claim any taxable benefits from DWP?  Did you claim an in tax year refund from HMRC?  You don't mention either of these things in the rest of your post.

Have you got to the questions near the end of the return about how you would prefer the tax due under Self Assessment to be collected??

Note this isn't a given, if you owe say £1,000 but HMRC estimate you will only earn say £10,000 under PAYE next tax year then paying via your 2025-26 tax code isn't an option, you would have to pay it direct to HMRC by 31 January 2025 as HMRC apply certain rules before including tax owed in your tax code.

Make sure you read and understand the next question after that on your return as well.  Before submitting your return.

gdale

Because I have no idea what trading allowance is and might end up being one of the reasons I have posted here - in order for people to explain how I could do this differently and to help me out as this is very scary. 

I have never claimed anything from DWP or a tax refund.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

gdale said:

Because I have no idea what trading allowance is and might end up being one of the reasons I have posted here - in order for people to explain how I could do this differently and to help me out as this is very scary. 

I have never claimed anything from DWP or a tax refund.

You might find this worth a read then.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/working/self-employment/trading-allowance

If you haven't claimed anything from DWP then I fail to see how they could have possibly made a tax refund to you.  So if they haven't refunded any of your 2023-24 tax and HMRC didn't refund anything for 2023-24 I'm not sure why you think that question is relevant to you?

Are you completing an Employment page for each separate employment you had in 2023-24?

gdale

Yes because that's what it asked me to do. 

I thought it might be applicable to me because I got some payslips with negative PAYE on them so I thought that might qualify as a tax refund?

I have now found the trading allowance and cancelled the £800 expenses and swapped it for the £1000 trading allowance so thank you for your help on that. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

gdale said:

Yes because that's what it asked me to do. 

I thought it might be applicable to me because I got some payslips with negative PAYE on them so I thought that might qualify as a tax refund?

I have now found the trading allowance and cancelled the £800 expenses and swapped it for the £1000 trading allowance so thank you for your help on that. 

But they were tax refunds made by an employer so would be reflected on the relevant employment page.

For each employment you would show the payments relating to that employment and tax deducted or refunded by that employer, usually information shown on your P45/P60's.

anniecave

To confirm, it's just a total earned and tax paid per employer you need to declare on your tax return (the last amount for each which would be amounts shown on a p45 or the final p60 amounts for your last employer at tax year end).  If you had for the same employer some negative tax amounts and some positives then it's only the end total that matters.