Paying voluntary NI contributions

Here is the info:

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions

TheGreatUnknown wrote: »

I've seen this page. I don't understand fully what options I have. Can I pay Class 3 contributions?

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes unless you are regarded as self employed which does not sound like it.[/FONT]

TheGreatUnknown wrote: »

(I come from abroad, so am not familiar with UK tax law, sorry!)

Who should I be classified as?
- I am a director of my own limited company
- I am not employed by my company
- I am not a sole trader (except for some sporadic projects which bring in a few £k per year)

Am I unemployed, self-employed or some other beast? ;-)

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I think as far as your company is concerned you are an employee for Tax/NI even though you don't yet earn any money.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If you other self employed activity is declared as such to HMRC then presumably you could pay Class 2 NI on that basis which is cheaper then Class 3[/FONT]

Sorry Thegreatunknown, you appear to be playing about with no idea what you are doing here and have not researched the rules with regards to either running a limited company or being self employed, you have to do both.


When Tom99 linked to an explanation of voluntary contributions you basically said you do not understand that information. If that is the case you realy should just get a job with a company that does understand this stuff.



Can I suggest that you go back to reading the information that the posters have helped you with together with finding out the rules about running a limited company that you appear not to understand.


No doubt you will also make a reply to this message that you do not understand it.


Therefore I will give you some information that will help you if you do a bit more research but that is a job for you to do .



If you have not registered your limited company do it as soom as possible like on Monday as the later on in the year you regester it you do not get the full benifits of a years free national insurance credit.


If the company earns £7,500 between now and April 2019 you can pay yourself £5,916 allow £500 for expenses and £1,000 for an accountant to do your year end accounts as you appear not to be in a position to do them your self from you lack of knowledge.


You also would have to register the limited company for PAYE to pay yourself via PAYE and by paying yourself the £5,916 you will get a years NI credit without paying any NI contributions, these are Class 1 NI contributions. In this case you are an employee of the Limited Company. If you pay yourself £5,915 in the year you get no NI credit. Nor will two jobs that total £5,196 do the job.

For you to get the years credit. It must be one employment with an employer for Class 1.



To protect yourself you also register as self employed with HMRC again on Monday, if the company does not earn enough to pay you £5,916 by April 2019. In April 2019 you do a self assement tax return and add the self employed page.



With that you apply to pay Class 2 NI contributions of around £150 for the year and that will get you a years NI contribution. You cannot do that for tax year 2019 2020.



You will need a total of 10 years NI contributions in the UK to get any UK pension, not a full pension.


Are you wanting to get a UK state pension or apply for Job Seekers Allowance.


Do you already have any previous years NI contributions.

Class 2 is voluntary for self-employed people under the threshold, although it is so cheap. There are some not very logical historical reasons for this cost anomaly against Class 3.