Advice Required for Employee looking to become Employee + Sole Trader

pension_correction

I am employed in a full time position (Monday to Friday) where I contribute to a company pension scheme via salary sacrifice. A recent role change (which I'm very grateful for) has seen me earn into the higher tax band. I've not paid that much into the pension over the years and I would like to increase these by taking on a self employed courier role at the weekends. I want to do this to gain experience of BOTH running my own business as a sole trader and to start and manage my own SIPP. Of note I have already started the SIPP with Fidelity a few months back and I now want to get a second income to start to feed this.

Whilst I am planning to see a local financial advisor - I'd like to gain somewhat of an understanding before I go into the meeting in a few weeks time of what I should be asking and what I should expect and what might be possible.

Some questions I have are: 

1. Are there any tax advantages to be aware of as an employee AND a sole trader?
2. By contrast, to question 1, are the any disadvantages to be aware of as an employee AND a sole trader?
3. Should I establish the courier business as a sole trader or limited company?
4. What do I need to be aware of in terms of HMRC? Obviously this will require a self assessment - but would I need to ask for a review of my tax code? Maybe not if I was to get an accountant to manage that for me.
5. How to take on the additional role of being a sole trader as tax efficiently as possible alongside the income from my full time employment?

Any information or links to suggested reading would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Isthisforreal99

pension_correction said:

I am employed in a full time position (Monday to Friday) where I contribute to a company pension scheme via salary sacrifice. A recent role change (which I'm very grateful for) has seen me earn into the higher tax band. I've not paid that much into the pension over the years and I would like to increase these by taking on a self employed courier role at the weekends. I want to do this to gain experience of BOTH running my own business as a sole trader and to start and manage my own SIPP. Of note I have already started the SIPP with Fidelity a few months back and I now want to get a second income to start to feed this.

Whilst I am planning to see a local financial advisor - I'd like to gain somewhat of an understanding before I go into the meeting in a few weeks time of what I should be asking and what I should expect and what might be possible.

Some questions I have are: 

1. Are there any tax advantages to be aware of as an employee AND a sole trader?
2. By contrast, to question 1, are the any disadvantages to be aware of as an employee AND a sole trader?
3. Should I establish the courier business as a sole trader or limited company?
4. What do I need to be aware of in terms of HMRC? Obviously this will require a self assessment - but would I need to ask for a review of my tax code? Maybe not if I was to get an accountant to manage that for me.
5. How to take on the additional role of being a sole trader as tax efficiently as possible alongside the income from my full time employment?

Any information or links to suggested reading would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Why a SIPP when you have the benefit of a salary sacrifice scheme? You should be making hay whilst you can.

In terms of your other questions

1. and 2. No advantage nor disadvantage.
3. There are costs to setting up Ltd vs sole but also benefits. Personally i would start sole and see how it goes.
4. Nothing needs to change with your tax code. 
5. As above, the most tax (and NIC) efficient thing you can do is max out your salary sacrifice.

As an aside, a courier business has high overheads and may not be particularly profitable.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

pension_correction said:

I am employed in a full time position (Monday to Friday) where I contribute to a company pension scheme via salary sacrifice. A recent role change (which I'm very grateful for) has seen me earn into the higher tax band. I've not paid that much into the pension over the years and I would like to increase these by taking on a self employed courier role at the weekends. I want to do this to gain experience of BOTH running my own business as a sole trader and to start and manage my own SIPP. Of note I have already started the SIPP with Fidelity a few months back and I now want to get a second income to start to feed this.

Whilst I am planning to see a local financial advisor - I'd like to gain somewhat of an understanding before I go into the meeting in a few weeks time of what I should be asking and what I should expect and what might be possible.

Some questions I have are: 

1. Are there any tax advantages to be aware of as an employee AND a sole trader?
2. By contrast, to question 1, are the any disadvantages to be aware of as an employee AND a sole trader?
3. Should I establish the courier business as a sole trader or limited company?
4. What do I need to be aware of in terms of HMRC? Obviously this will require a self assessment - but would I need to ask for a review of my tax code? Maybe not if I was to get an accountant to manage that for me.
5. How to take on the additional role of being a sole trader as tax efficiently as possible alongside the income from my full time employment?

Any information or links to suggested reading would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Looking at your questions I suspect an initial meeting with an accountant would be far more useful than one with an IFA.

As you haven't yet decided whether sole trader or limited company is the best route I don't know how you can know a Self Assessment return will be necessary 🤔

And likewise, without knowing the answer to the sole trader/limited company question (and any salary of limited company route) you cannot know if your tax code at your existing job will be impacted.