Brand new as self employed

SJWilks

Hi.  I have only been registered as self employed for a couple of weeks.  I have done no work yet and of course, not yet issued any invoices.  However , I keep noticing the 31st of January as deadline day for self assessment.  Considering my self employment circumstances, do I still need to undertake the self assessment procedure?

Marcon

SJWilks said:

Hi.  I have only been registered as self employed for a couple of weeks.  I have done no work yet and of course, not yet issued any invoices.  However , I keep noticing the 31st of January as deadline day for self assessment.  Considering my self employment circumstances, do I still need to undertake the self assessment procedure?

Not for the tax year 2023/24, but you will probably need to do so for 24/25 (online filing deadline for that will be 31 January 2026).

You are clearly very new to self employment, so will have plenty to think about - but getting off on the right foot in respect of accounting, tax, record keeping etc will save a lot of headaches at a future date. If you've not yet taken advice from an accountant (and you obviously haven't or you wouldn't be asking this question here), it could be well worth considering, even if the budget is currently very tight.

Also make sure you have a good solid contract setting out your terms of trading, or check you are happy with the contractual terms any clients try to impose on you. If you are self employed you are personally liable - you don't have the protection of limited liability that you'd get if you had your own limited company and worked through that - so insurance could be important, depending on the type of work you will be doing.

For background reading, see https://www.gov.uk/browse/business Worth checking if your local authority runs any business start up classes - many do, either free or heavily subsidised.