Employed and Self employed??

Dogsarethebest2025

Hi all, I currently work a few hrs a week in a local pub after having kids, that way I dont need to pay for childcare and its a bit of extra £££ a month. I am thinking of starting to sell a few cards/crafty stuff in the area as I am pretty good at it and had a lot of interest. Do I need to then tell HMRC I am a sole trader? I doubt id sell an awful lot.

Thanks 

dinosaur66

only my advice 

personally i would not tell hmrc and give it a go for 3 months with the card selling/ logging your takings and all your costs in a book using paper and pen /

every month do your costs in 1 column and your takings in another

tot them up and put down your profit

put down your bar work as well / you will need to cover yourself just in case

after 3 months you will see if this is going to be viable venture

you can earn £12.700 or close to this figure before any tax is due at all and this is profit not takings 

 

Marcon

dinosaur66 said:

only my advice 

personally i would not tell hmrc and give it a go for 3 months with the card selling/ logging your takings and all your costs in a book using paper and pen /

every month do your costs in 1 column and your takings in another

tot them up and put down your profit

put down your bar work as well / you will need to cover yourself just in case

after 3 months you will see if this is going to be viable venture

you can earn £12.700 or close to this figure before any tax is due at all and this is profit not takings 

 

OP has said they are an employee, so the bar work isn't the issue here.

OP, see https://www.gov.uk/set-up-as-sole-trader which takes you through the necessary steps one by one and explains if/when you need to register as self employed in respect of your creative activities.

itsthelittlethings

I’m pretty sure you can earn £1000 from a side hustle like this without having to declare it or pay any tax, you don’t need to set yourself up as a sole trader.

sheramber

itsthelittlethings said:

I’m pretty sure you can earn £1000 from a side hustle like this without having to declare it or pay any tax, you don’t need to set yourself up as a sole trader.

The £1k is turnover , not profit. 

itsthelittlethings

Fair enough, you’d still have to sell quite a few cards to turn over £1000.

dinosaur66

Marcon said:

dinosaur66 said:

only my advice 

personally i would not tell hmrc and give it a go for 3 months with the card selling/ logging your takings and all your costs in a book using paper and pen /

every month do your costs in 1 column and your takings in another

tot them up and put down your profit

put down your bar work as well / you will need to cover yourself just in case

after 3 months you will see if this is going to be viable venture

you can earn £12.700 or close to this figure before any tax is due at all and this is profit not takings 

 

OP has said they are an employee, so the bar work isn't the issue here.

OP, see https://www.gov.uk/set-up-as-sole-trader which takes you through the necessary steps one by one and explains if/when you need to register as self employed in respect of your creative activities.

she said she works a few hours in a pub / i take this to mean it is cash in hand / its the normal thing in gig economy /

as to govt website and follow the rules /

me i think she should try it out first 

i am now retired but was a street market trader sole trader of 43 years and know how hard it is 

70  hours a week needs to be put in when first starting out and no holidays ever plus no sick pay

for sake of just a few pounds profit if anyone is on housing help /council tax help/ universal credit/jobseekers allowance etc etc and signs up for self employment there benfits are stopped and they find out that there business is not really financially viable they then have to stop and re-aply for the benefits that were stopped

not sure of the rules are the same today as there were when i started as a sole trader in early 80s but if you stopped your self employed business then you were classed as voluntary unemployed and entitled to sod all in way of benefits

LITRG

Hello, someone starting out, doesn't need to register with HMRC until well after the end of the tax year in which they start their activity, giving them time to review if they can use the trading allowance etc: https://www.litrg.org.uk/working/self-employment/self-employment-registering-tax-and-nic. Hope that helps.